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Industry Partners
Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Factors critical for successful vaccination against classical swine fever in endemic areas
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2007 | No Comments
Study finds coccidia parasite on 70 percent of farms tested
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As pork producers moved away from concrete floors in the farrowing room, many assumed that coccidia,
a protozoan parasite which typically causes mild diarrhea in piglets at one to three weeks of age, had disappeared or diminished in importance. Not so. In a study conducted on 50 Ontario farms from May to August 2006, researchers found coccidia oocysts in feces from piglets aged from seven to 21 days on 70 per cent of the farms. Litters with coccidia were four times more likely to have diarrhea. Even in litters without diarrhea, coccidia were detected in 24 per cent of fecal samples. While the infection may cause reduced growth rates, it seldom results in serious illness or death.
AI and its Influence on Production Efficiency
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AI in pigs is by no means a new technique. Methods for semen collection and processing, and for sow insemination had been devised during the 1930’s on the State Farms in Russia (Milovanov, 1934) although there was little commercial application of this system in the years that followed. In 1956 AI was re-introduced to the pig industry by Chris Polge (1956) who highlighted the benefits of a process which facilitated more widespread use of an individual superior boar than would be possible through natural service; a system which offered all producers, regardless of herd size, access to the best boars available. At that early stage, advantages offered by AI included livestock improvement, disease control, facilitation of cross-breeding programmes, convenience and economics (Reed, 1969).
The pig industry then followed a laborious and sometimes painful period learning curve as a system was developed which could ensure consistently high levels of fertility at all levels of production. Behind these efforts was the driving force of enhanced efficiency and product quality so essential to the ongoing development and success of the industry. By the 1980 s a workable system was in place; although further improvements were still required, AI could be applied to all levels ofproduction, including the commercial herd (Reed, 1982).
Breeding Safer Corn
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Fusarium graminearum is a fungus which infects feed
corn, causing a disease known as gibberella ear rot.
It contaminates the grain by releasing mycotoxins, such
as deoxynivalenol, which cause a wide array of ailments
when eaten by pigs, including vomiting, feed refusal and
decreased weight gain. By spring 2007, Pauls and his colleagues hope to have
mapped genes expressed in infected corn tissues, and identified
corn genes similar to those differentially expressed
between resistant and susceptible wheat and barley varieties.
Wheat and barley are affected by the same fungus. They
also plan to have tested genes associated with ferulic acid
synthesis for their association with Fusarium resistance.
Development and validation of a method for simultaneous analysis of the boar taint compounds indole, skatole and androstenone in pig fat using liquid chromatography–multiple mass spectrometry
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The present paper describes the development of a methodology for rapid and effective simultaneous extraction of boar taint compounds from pig fat tissue. The applicability of a single LC–MSn method as a specific detection method for both indolic compounds and a steroidic compound was evaluated. The results showed that the simultaneous determination of ID, SK and AEON in back fat matrix was enabled combining minimised sample handling with a high specific mass spectrometric detection technique. However, as simultaneous analysis of structurally different indolic compounds and a steroid was assessed, future research will specifically address improvement of the extraction procedure.