Alternative Dry Sow Housing

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Welfare by admin on April 5, 2006 | No Comments

The UK banned dry sow stalls in 1999, and since then there has been a trend away from stalls in the EU, and later North America. Properly managed group housing can be economically and productively similar to stalls. Within group housing, stalls are still useful for isolating sows with poor body condition scores, behavioural issues, or breeding. Voluntarily switching to group housing can prevent negative public opinion, and avoid a mandatory installation though legislation.

Group Housing Sows – Take Away Notes

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The EU is in the process of banning gestation stalls, and several countries have already done so. Some of the tips North American producers can learn from this include leaving 3 years for research, and a 2 year learning curve post-conversion. Other decisions to make are the type of system, grouping type, herd size, management, structure design, identification, observations, group mixing, and cost.

Hitting the Target on Your Grid

Posted in: Meat Quality, Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on | No Comments

Market weights for a facility will depend on the genetics, the feeding program, and the packer’s requirements. The packer will generally have a range of acceptable weight, but pay more for a smaller core range. Backfat and lean mass can also impact the price the packer will pay for a hog. The price the packer pays is determined by a settlement sheet, which takes into account weight and carcass characteristics. Weighing pigs is time-consuming, but can result in more profit from the packer. Auto-sorters can reduce time and labour needed to sort out ideal market size pigs. However, pigs need to be accustomed to it and stress should be reduced for the pigs by providing space, feed, water, and reducing time spent waiting.

New Thoughts on Nutrition of Newly Weaned Pigs

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Nursery pig diets should be chosen to adjust pigs quickly to a cheaper and simpler diet, maximize feed intake, and be highly digestible.  After weaning the pig’s digestive tract undergoes an acute phase and then an adaptive phase. Pigs have high turnover of portal-drained viscera tissue, which requires large amounts of protein turnover and energy. Diets can be formulated to support the turnover in weanling pigs. Antibiotic use has been coming under increasing pressure, so alternatives to help nursery growth can be considered. Probiotic benefit is debatable as there is a large variation in strain and amount used, herd health status, and amount consumed in the nursery. However, feeding the sow probiotics during lactation may be able to benefit the pigs pre- and post-weaning. Liquid feeding may also be easier on post-weaning digestive tracts. Insoluble dietary fibre can reduce diarrhea, although it may be more useful in areas where antibiotics are already banned. Pro-inflammatory cytokines can lead to an immune response, and fatty acids have been shown to reduce the inflammatory response. Feed quality, particle size, and pelleting are also considerations when choosing a nursery diet.

An overview of North American PRRS eradication efforts

Posted in: Air Filtration, Pork Insight Articles by admin on March 31, 2006 | No Comments

An article put out in the Journal of Animal Science stated that the PRRS virus cost pig producer $560 million annually. Although this number is conservative because it only accounted for the losses in production and not the cost of treating the disease and the opportunity cost of having pigs kept longer. Since the disease classical swine fever and pseudorabies have been eraticated from swine herds in the US, the possibility of eradicating the PRRS virus has come into discussion. A statement put out by the AASV stated their long term goal was complete eradication of the PRRS virus and they plan to work with industry to achieve this goal. Following this statement PRRS eradication groups were developed across North America. These groups did well in collecting funding and organizing action towards PRRS eradication but work still needs to be done with “substantial eradication”. The removal of PRRS from a herd was able to be achieved but the true challenge was keeping the disease from infecting a susceptible herd. A lot of research has gone into air filtration systems and the study of potential carriers of the disease such as biological and mechanical fomites. Going forward more research will have to be done and project will be continue help achieve complete eradication of the disease.

In vitro germline potential of stem cells derived from fetal porcine skin

Posted in: Ontario Pork, Pork Insight Articles by admin on March 26, 2006 | No Comments

Two of the unanswered questions in mammalian developmental biology are when and where the fate of the germ cell is specified. Here, we report that stem cells isolated from the skin of porcine fetuses have the intrinsic ability to differentiate into oocyte-like cells. When differentiation was induced, a subpopulation of these cells expressed markers such as Oct4, Growth differentiation factor 9b (GDF9b), the Deleted in Azoospermia-like (DAZL) gene and Vasa — all consistent with germ-cell formation. On further differentiation, these cells formed follicle-like aggregates that secreted oestradiol and progesterone and responded to gonadotropin stimulation. Some of these aggregates extruded large oocyte-like cells that expressed oocyte markers, such as zona pellucida, and the meiosis marker, synaptonemal complex protein 3 (SCP3).
Some of these oocyte-like cells spontaneously developed into parthenogenetic embryo-like structures. The ability to
generate oocyte-like cells from skin-derived cells may offer new possibilities for tissue therapy and provide a new in vitro model to study germ-cell formation and oogenesis.

The welfare of finishing pigs in two contrasting housing systems: Fully-slatted versus straw-bedded accommodation

Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 26, 2006 | No Comments

It is generally perceived that pigs in straw bedding are experiencing a more welfare friendly environment. This paper sets out to determine if there are actual welfare benefits to straw bedding vs fully slated pens. Over 3 years using 1028 pigs researchers conducted four tests (2 in summer periods and 2 in winter periods) in which pigs were either put in fully slated rooms or straw-bedded rooms. Health records were kept to see if pigs became visibly ill or suffered from respiratory issues. Other factors that pigs were check for were body damage, hygiene, behavior, foot damage, measurements at slaughter, lung and cardiac lesions and gastric ulceration. The study also incorporated wet and dry feeding variations. The results of the study found little difference in several categories including mortality (health records), body damage, hygiene, and time spent eating and drinking. There were differences observed in specific health issues such as foot damage, toe damage was worse in straw while sole and heel damage was worse in fully slated rooms. Large difference were found in respiratory diseases which were high in straw bedded pens. Fully slated pens saw increases in tail biting, assumed to be because with no straw to root around in pigs began to investigate other pigs. Lameness was significantly treated more in fully slated pens. Overall days lost to treatment were 631 for fully slated pens and  904 for straw beds. Both systems hold benefits over the other, and also have short comings. This paper exposes the draw backs for potential improvement in either system.

To view this complete article please visit: http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/livsci/

To What Extent Does Wealth Maximization Benefit Farmed Animals? A Law and Economics Approach to a Ban on Gestation Crates in Pig Production

Posted in: Economics, Welfare by admin on January 10, 2006 | No Comments

This paper discusses the potential impacts animal activists could have on animal welfare if they attempted to push there wants through the courts by showing the potential increase in  value of converting from gestation stalls,  rather than trying to make change through public opinion. The economic theory of wealth maximization is proposed as a way to improve animal rights, stating: while people increasingly try to improve there own wealth and promote there own interest, people will be able to represent animal interests through there own. The paper sites that three quarters of Americans agree that farm animals should be free of controversial farming practices such as gestation crates but because of lack of information industrial agriculture producers continue to operate systems in which the public allegedly does not agree with. The paper suggests that legislation has potential to correct this market failure. Evans proposes that animal activists should focus on economic benefits when pushing legislation reforms. There are varying opinions about the economics of gestation crates but the paper argues that there are more positive economic results than negative. There are several studies which show welfare improvements to sows when using alternative housing systems which leads to the argument that the public is willing to pay more for pork if it is raised in a humane way.  Also stated is that pork has an inelastic demand, meaning if prices were to go up demand would not change significantly. Evans argues that even if there is an increase in cost to farmers from converting from gestation crates the marketing benefits will supplement the costs.

An Integrated Index of Electrical Energy Use in Canadian Agriculture with Implications for Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Posted in: Energy by admin on January 1, 2006 | No Comments

Electricity is fundamental to many farm chores. In this paper quantitative indices of electrical energy use were developed which reflect direct on-farm decisions for measures that farmers can adopt to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With commonly available historical agricultural records as inputs, the indices allowed extrapolation backward in time with the same analytical methods as used for current energy use estimates. Each index was derived from one or more literature sources dealing with energy use in operations associated with different farming systems. Development focused on six major Canadian farm types, including two for crop production systems and four for livestock. The scale of application is national with required inputs being populations of pigs, poultry, beef and dairy cows, and crop production for small grain cereals, grain maize and canola, and greenhouse floor area. The indices were initially compared to the 1996 Farm Energy Use Survey (FEUS) of Canada and were within 5% of the FEUS electrical energy value. The integrated index was then converted to equivalent CO2 emissions for comparison with two independent sources CO2 emissions from farm energy. It agreed more closely with the 2004 Energy Use Data Handbook from Natural Resources Canada than with the 1999 Health of our Air report by Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, but was between these two sources. The comparisons of CO2 emissions took account of energy use for household as well as farm operations. The impact of the changing share of electrical energy generated by fossil fuel, rather than by nuclear or hydro-power plants was also considered. Between 1996 and 2001 Canadian farm and household use of electrical energy resulted in GHG emissions from 1
8 to 2
4 Tg of CO2, while use for farm operations only (household excluded) remained at 1
1 Tg from the 1980s to 2001 when electrical generation by fossil fuel was fixed at 1996 levels. The integrated index is well within the required accuracy to be a useful tool for reporting on the Kyoto Protocol.

Detection of Swine Torque Teno Virus in Italian Pig Herds

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Anellovirus is a recently created, floating genus of viruses. Torque teno virus (TTV), the type species in the genus, was first discovered in a human patient with a post-transfusion
hepatitis of unknown aetiology. Recently, TTV genetically related to but distinct from those discovered in humans have also been found in animals, including pigs. The aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of swine TTV in Italian pig herds and some risk factors possibly associated with this infection. Serum samples from 179 healthy pigs from 10 farms located in north-central Italy were tested by polymerase chain reaction for the presence of swine TTV DNA. Viral DNA was
found in the sera of 43 pigs (24.0%), coming from eight of the 10 farms examined. Prevalence was significantly higher in finishing herds (40.1%) than in farrow-to-finish herds (11.0%) and did not depend on the size of the herd. Within the finishing herds the prevalence was significantly higher in weaners (57.4%) than in fatteners (22.9%), but this difference was not observed in farrow-to-finish herds. No relationship was observed between the prevalence of swine TTV and the implementation of some general hygiene practices and biosecurity procedures within the herds.