Challenges and Opportunities to Pork Production Around the World: the North Carolina Perspective

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An overview of the points covered in a talk given by Monte McCaw at the 2006 London Swine Conference.

Different Approaches to Handling Circovirus

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Porcine Circovirus type 2 (PCV2) causes post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), which causes clinical signs usually in pigs 7-15 weeks of age. The 2004-2005 outbreak in eastern Canada affected older hogs, though. This outbreak may also be caused by a novel strain of PCV2. PCV2 is necessary for causing PMWS, but other co-factors are involved as well. These can include the presence of other diseases, immune functioning, and production practises. Most commercial pigs have low levels of PCV2 and remain healthy; those that do develop PMWS have very high levels of PCV2. Keeping PCV2 levels below the threshold could prevent PMWS. Vaccines are currently not available, but are being developed.

The Global Picture – the Forces That Impact on Swine Production

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The World Trade Organization has new negotiations called the Doha round. The negotiations are not finalized, but so far focus on market access, domestic support, and export competition. For agriculture, it is expected there will be reduced import duties, domestic support, and export subsidies. Trade is moving towards a more open market with fewer barriers, but also a more complex and competitive market.

Reproductive Innovations for Swine Production: Future Impacts of Gender Pre-Selection, Embryo Transfer and Cloning

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Gender pre-selected sperm that have been sorted using flow cytometric sorting are becoming widely used in the cattle industry, but the swine industry has been slower to adopt the technology. This is partially because swine require a greater number of spermatozoa for fertilization. In early gender selection research, physical and mechanical methods have been shown to be largely inefficient. Several machines using flow cytometry sorting have recently been shown to be effective by confirmation with fluorescent staining, counting microsatellite DNA probe, and PCR. They have also proved efficient at gender selection through producing in vivo and in vitro litters. Gender selection is not yet commercially viable due to the special insemination techniques needed (AI requires too many sperm), and further developments needed for sperm sorters.

Embryonic transfer has successfully been done with swine, but is not widely used due to the necessary surgical procedures used to retrieve and sometimes place the embryos. Non-surgical embryo placement has been attempted for decades, and usually have low farrowing rates and litter sizes. However, farrowing rates of up to 70% have been achieved when a Spirette and inner catheter are used. Non-surgical embryo placement requires specific training, although new technology may make it a more viable option in the future. Cloning is another aspect of reproductive technology that may be more widely utilized in the future. Cloning requires an excellent embryonic source, precise procedures, and a sterile environment. Cloning may be used to recreate top performing animals, for use in experimental models, to genetically modify genes for specific traits, and for health-care related applications.

Different Approaches to Handling PRRS

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Knowledge on PRRS transmission is still lacking, but management strategies exist to control it. The strategy that will be most effective differs between barns based on location (if the area is hog-dense or not), herd health status, herd immunity, and strain of PRRS. Acute outbreak management strategies include implementing the McREBEL fostering system, strict all-in all-out protocol, and uniformly infecting the herd to gain immunity. Endemic PRRS persist in the nursery and finisher stages for long after the initial outbreak. The virus can be spread horizontally or vertically, and the source should be identified as soon as possible. Total or partial depopulation, strict all-in all-out, thorough sanitation and disinfection procedures, and vaccination are methods to eliminate endemic PRRS. Long-term control of PRRS is primarily strict biosecurity: the source of the initial outbreak should be located and fixed, and any other lacking areas fixed as well. New gilts should be isolated and acclimatized before herd entry, mass vaccination can be used, and herd closure or depopulation/repopulation can be used for long-term control.

Reproductive Innovations: Control of Sow Estrus and Breeding

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Typically artificial insemination (AI) gives poorer reproductive performance than natural insemination due to backflow and sperm death. If the time of ovulation was reliably known, then a single dose using fewer sperm would be able to ensure fertilization. Sows that have a wean-to-estrus length greater than 5 days have decreased reproductive performance for the next litter, so gonadotrophins can be used on sows with records showing a longer length. However, breeding management should be altered to include a day 3 breeding. Regumate can also be added to feed for 7 days post-weaning to control estrus, and increase farrowing rate and litter size. Trans-cervical insemination will decrease the number of sperm requires for fertilization. In the past this has only been achieved by a surgical or endoscopic procedure, but a new catheter design is expected to be on the market shortly to allow this. The timing of insemination is critical to ensure fertilization. Sows with a short wean-to-estrus interval have longer estrus, and tend to be late ovulators. Long wean-to-estrus will usually result in a shorter estrus and earlier ovulation. Gonadotrophin treatments can be used to synchronize estrus, but will make ovulation timing harder to predict. Porcine luteinizing hormone can help make ovulation timing more predictable. Artificial insemination can become more successful and use fewer doses of semen with less sperm if the ovulation timing can be accurately predicted in sows.

What Producers can do to Improve Meat Quality: the Genetic Approach

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Genetics have allowed producers to improve their breeding stock, but carcass characteristics are still hard to select for. If genetics were used to create specific characteristics for a grid, the results would likely lag behind a changing grid. Rather producers need to have a flexible genetic line that can have carcass characteristics altered through feeding and management. Previous success with selection for carcass characteristics includes the selection for decreased backfat. The result was a decrease in overall body fat allowing leaner products and higher weights to be achieved, which increases feed efficiency and improves carcass value. The future for selection for carcass characteristics will likely include improving product quality. Quality differs between person and country, but features like colour, tenderness, marbling, and flavour could be altered. Likely the way to do so will be through the terminal sire line, as maternal lines have a significant investment in them towards hybrid vigor and fertility. Measuring visual components, pH, and water holding capacity requires additional labour and wastage, although molecular genetics may be able to help through marker assisted selection (MAS). Using MAS and EBVs terminal sire lines can be selected to improve product quality.

New Approaches to Weaner Room Management

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Optimal nursery management involves the environment, group formation, feeding, and overall good stockmanship. The lower critical temperature is 26-28°C the first week after weaning due to decreased feed intake and reduces body thermal insulation, but temperature should be gauged more by pig behaviour than the thermostat. If pigs are huddling they will be expending more energy simply trying to keep warm. Once pigs have started eating, temperatures can be lowered at night to save heating costs and stimulate appetite. Poor sanitation can reduce performance by reducing nutrient utilization and stressing the immune system. During mixing some aggression is expected for pigs to settle their new hierarchy, and this appears to have little effect on production. Sorting has generally produced no increase in performance, though pens for sick or particularly poor pigs can still be used. Increases in group size can slightly decrease performance, but may still be justified if it reduces costs in areas like construction or maintenance. More important than group size are the feeder space, feeder coverage, and water access. Performance can also be influenced by birth weight and weaning weight. However, some pigs with the heaviest weight at weaning can be slowest to start eating, and some lighter pigs can be the best performers. Identifying the poor performers and intervening early may be able to help them catch up. Finally, pigs that had been suckling from posterior teats seem to have increased growth compared to those that suckle anterior teats during lactation, but those on posterior teats maintain growth better during the first 4 days of weaning.

Energy Efficiencies – Strategies for Minimizing Utility Costs in the Barn

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Heating, lighting, and ventilation are necessary to keep pigs at optimal performance, but there are strategies to reduce costs without impacting performance. For energy, a longer term contract may be beneficial, as energy prices have risen and are expected to continue up. Heat and ventilation need to be balanced, especially in the colder seasons. Heat loss from ventilation increases with pig size, but reducing ventilation will affect air quality. In rooms with multiple fans it is a good idea to have one capable of reaching winter minimum and one for summer maximum. In smaller rooms, an oversized fan can be used by setting it on a timer. Heaters, unfortunately, are usually oversized to be capable of heating during the lowest temperature, a second heater or split burner can reduce this, but requires capital cost. Convective heaters systems can use direct-fired forced air or hot water heating systems, and radiant heating systems can be gas tube heaters, open flame brooders, or in-floor radiant. Costs and advantages/disadvantages vary for each system. Wiring, amperage, voltage, CFM/W, size, wind breaks, and chimneys can all increase ventilation efficiency. Currently the most durable and efficient light bulb is the T-8 fluorescent tube, or high intensity discharge fixtures can be used with higher ceilings. Simply taking time to understand the controls for heating and ventilation can help reduce energy usage as well. Heat exchangers can help recover heat lost through ventilation, but require maintenance and can cause drafts. Alternative fuels and renewable energy show promise, but have problems that need to be worked out before use in a commercial barn.

On-Farm Experience with Swine Liquid Feeding: Nursery Pigs

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The Tinholt nursery farm uses a two tank liquid feeding system with one low and one high protein diet. The diet starts as high protein and gradually switches to low protein. Growth performance is usually decreased during the first two weeks of nursery, and then increases rapidly to above dry feed levels. The use of co-products in the feed means feed costs are lower than a dry diet, and the diet also helps gut health in the pigs. The down sides of the system are the high initial and operating costs, reduced initial feed intake, high levels of management needed, risk of yeast or bacteria growth, and inconsistency in co-products.