Arthritis or OCD – Identification and Prevention

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

Physical lameness in swine still exists despite the decades of improvements in genetic, nutrition, disease, and housing management practices. Osteochondrosis (OC) is the most prevalent cause of structural lameness in growing swine and can progress to osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD) and osteoarthritis (OA). It is still unknown what exactly causes these diseases and are classified as idiopathic (disease of unknown cause or origin). Genetics could potentially contribute to these diseases. Work is being done to find a genetic basis for OC and related disorders. A single gene mutation is unlikely to explain all the factors that lead to OA disorders (it is most likely multiple gene mutations). Environmental factors thought to be important in modulation of gene expression include nutrition, disease, and housing. There is current work being done on investigating nutritional factors, and there is no evidence that OC results from infectious organisms. Different housing systems have not had any effect on the occurrence of OC. Management recommendations include selecting for extremes in growth potential, keeping pigs fit by feeding complete diets to meet all requirements, and allow adequate stocking rates.

Heterogeneous Production Efficiency of Specialized Swine Producers

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

How Does Weaning Weight Influence the Growth Check in Early Weaned Piglets?

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Weaning can be a difficult time for early-weaned piglets. During the first 3 to 4 days post weaning they lose weight and may not consume enough water to meet their physiological needs. This is not surprising as weaning is an abrupt change for piglets. Up to weaning piglets have lived with the sow and their littermates and acquired their nourishment through nursing. Following weaning, piglets must learn to drink from a nipple drinker, eat a solid diet and feed individually, without the benefit of nursing grunts to signal feeding times. The result of this is a growth check, which is a welfare and economic concern. In this research project we asked the question: How does weaning weight affect the piglet’s ability to negotiate the growth check? The result of this experiment showed that the heavier piglets from a litter lost more weight over a longer period and had lower percentage ADG than their lighter littermates. These heavier piglets may have more difficulty in the immediate post-weaning period because they have less experience with creep feed and water. Increased fighting among these heavier piglets probably exacerbates this. Producers may want to pay more attention to these larger piglets as they may look better on casual inspection but may actually be at more risk during the first week post weaning.

Opportunities For Improving Reproductive Management And Efficiency Of The Swine Breeding Herd With Artificial Insemination

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Artificial insemination (AI) was first developed for use in swine in the late 1960’s. Since that
time, advancements have led to a slow but gradual increase in the use of this technology.
This article describes the current status of swine AI, its benefits and applications, and its
relationship to current reproductive performance in the USA.

Feeding time and feeding rate and its relationship with feed intake, feed efficiency, growth rate, and rate of fat deposition in growing Duroc barrows

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

The objectives of this study were to investigate trends based on daily measurements of feeding behavior traits in Duroc barrows during growth, and to investigate phenotypic correlations between feeding length and feeding rate, and feeding frequency, ADFI, G:F, growth rate, and rate of fat deposition. The data set of the current study was not sufficiently large for accurate estimation of heritabilities and genetic correlations. Knowledge on genetic parameters is needed in order to further discuss the possibility of incorporating feeding length and feeding rate in the
selection objectives. However, results of the current study indicate that, when sufficiently heritable, feeding length and feeding rate may be used to improve feed intake capacity in pigs during growth.

Size Reduction of Ammonia Scrubbers for Pig and Poultry Houses: Use of Conditional Bypass Vent at High Air Loading Rates

Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments

In The Netherlands, both acid and biological air scrubbers are used for removal of ammonia from exhaust air at pig and poultry houses. Current regulations require that scrubbers are dimensioned for treating the maximum airflow rate that may occur, so on average these systems are overdimensioned and underloaded. A new approach is introduced that is based on bypassing airflow peaks untreated. As a result, the air loading rate in m3 [air] m
3 [scrubber] h
1 and ammonia loading rate in kg [NH3] m
3 [scrubber] h
1 of the scrubber are more constant in time and average loading rates increase. By model calculations and analyses of measurement datasets it was demonstrated that the application of such a scrubber significantly decreases the required scrubber size while ammonia emission levels are only slightly increased (e.g. where the bypass is operated at 50% of the maximum ventilation rate and the scrubber volume is reduced by 50%, the bypass venting systems only allows 10–20% of the total ammonia load to be vented untreated). As a result, both the efficiency of scrubber utilisation in kg [NH3 removal] m
3 [scrubber volume] and the cost-effectiveness of air scrubbing for ammonia removal in kg [NH3 removal] h
1 are increased.

Technical and economical evaluation of direct in-barn solid-liquid separation of pig slurry and its environmental impacts

Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments

One of the major goals of Québec’s Règlement sur les exploitations agricoles, REA is to prevent excessive soil enrichment of phosphorous. When used as the only nitrogen fertilizer to meet the soil requirements, pig slurry brings too much phosphorous to the soil. Complete manure treatment systems prevent this problem, but are expensive and require solid-liquid separation of the slurry. On the other hand, in-barn separation of pigs’ feces –below the slatted floor – produces a solid fraction high in phosphorous and dry matter content, and could reduce odours and greenhouse-effect gases. Three in-barn feces separation systems with regards to separation efficiency and air quality: the net, the V-shaped scraper and the conveyor belt have been compared. All three systems had a similar separation efficiency, concentrating more than 90% of phosphorous and around 50% of nitrogen within the solid fraction, which always contained a minimum of 30% dry matter. All systems equally reduced ammonia (NH3) by 50%, like the conventional scraper. Hence, the sole regular removal of feces from under the pigs seems as efficient as solid-liquid separation to lower NH3 emissions. Greenhouse gases (N2O and CH4), odour emission and the hedonic parameters were not modified significantly by the three systems.
In the field, spreading of the liquid fraction requires from 6,7 to 7,7 times less growing area. The installation of such systems would cost 66$ more per pig-place than the conventional system, but design optimization can reduce the costs.

FEASIBILITY OF HYDROGEN PRODUCTION FROM ANAEROBIC MIXED FERMENTATION

Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments

Observations of production and emission of greenhouse gases and ammonia during storage of solids separated from pig slurry: Effects of covering

Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments

Influence of season, ventilation strategy, and slurry removal on methane emissions from pig houses

Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments