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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:
Assessing Sow State of Being Objectively: Genetic Implications
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2005 | No Comments
After thorough meta-analyses of the world’s available literature on the state of being
engendered by two common keeping systems for pregnant sows and gilts, an international,
multidisciplinary team of scientists recently concluded: “Although individual studies found
significant housing system effects, subjected to the overall evidence from adequately designed
studies, meta-analyses revealed that gestation stalls (non-tethered) or well-managed pens
generally (but not in all cases) produced similar states of welfare for pregnant gilts or sows in
terms of physiology, behavior, performance, and health.” (J. J. McGlone et al., Prof. Anim.
Scient. 20:105-117, 2004).
Despite this and other similar conclusions (e. g., J. L. Barnett et al., Aust. J. Agric. Res.
52:1-28, 2001), continuing political pressure by animal protectionists nowadays is causing North
American producers, animal scientists, and veterinarians alike to ask: How should we go about
optimizing sow state of being?
A series of at least seven decisions will have to be made as we go about answering this
question. In what follows, we’ll explore those topics and offer our opinions as to how we should
be moving forward in these matters at this time.
Pre- and postnatal transfer of vitamins E and C to piglets in sows supplemented with vitamin E and vitamin C
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This experiment investigated the effects of dietary supplementation of vitamin E and vitamin C on sow reproductive
performance and transfer of vitamin E to piglets via the placenta, colostrum and milk. The results provide evidence for only limited placental transfer of vitamin E but in utero concentration of vitamin C on the foetal side of the placenta. For both vitamins the efficiency of placental transfer decreased as maternal serum vitamin concentrations increased. The main supply of these vitamins to the newborn piglet was via the mammary gland rather than the placenta.
Study: Enzyme in Diet Helps Hogs Use More P
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
At the Prairie Swine Center, studies are being done to discover how much phosphorus contained in rations is simply wasted. Results show that about 70% of the phosphorus contained in feed is simply evacuated without being processed. This usually ends up in fields but luckily Saskatchewan soils tend to be phosphorus deficient so does not pose an environmental risk. It does, however, add additional costs to hog producers. They must add artificially produced phosphorus to their feed, which is expensive. The researchers at the Prairie Swine Center are working on the use of an enzyme, which, when added to the feed, helps animals digest the naturally occurring phosphorus contained in their diets. Results from this research have shown that it is possible to get the same performance in animal nutrition with the enzyme without adding phosphorus. Using this enzyme, producers see a net benefit of around $0.33/pig.
Applying Alternative Technologies To Cafos: A Case Study
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
Reducing Salmonella Transfer from Manure to the Environment
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There is concern that the application of hog manure slurry to fields used to raise crops or graze animals may increase risk that both animals and humans which/who consume products and produce from manure-treated fields could be exposed to potentially pathogenic organisms. Salmonella is carried and shed by a variable but measurable portion of cattle and hogs. There is also concern that use of contaminated manure on fields may increase the frequency of pathogen shedding by animals and establish an undesirable increase in the cyclic pattern of shedding. Concern regarding the quality of water in adjacent areas is also justifiable, should there be development of pathogen reservoirs in manure-treated soils. To determine the potential survival of pathogens, using Salmonella as the test group of organisms, three studies were conducted. Since earlier work had shown that these and other pathogens would not be problematic in agricultural environments if manure could be held at 25 C for 90d or longer before being spread on land, the first study was designed to monitor the temperature at different depths in both above-ground and earthen manure storage reservoirs in Manitoba over a period of about a year. The second study evaluated the survival of Salmonella added to manure slurry from sow, feeder and nursery barns stored at 4, 25 or 37 C for 90d, with those stored at 4 C being tested up to 300d. The third study examined the survival of Salmonella in inoculated manure added to clay or sandy loam soils subjected to seasonal sequences of temperatures representing exposures likely over 180d in Manitoba during the winter/summer, spring/summer or summer/winter seasons. Temperature histories from the above-ground and earthen manure storage reservoirs which were located near La Broquerie, MB, showed that for spring application to fields, manure temperatures had previously ranged from 0.5 to 8 C in the above-ground storage and from 1.5 to 11 C in the earthen storage. In contrast, manure applied in the fall had previously been exposed to temperatures of 14 to 19 C and 16 to 17 C in the above ground and earthen manure storage reservoirs, respectively. Thus, storage temperatures experienced by hog manure slurry, regardless of the type of storage reservoir, would not be high enough to ensure that slurry was pathogen-free at the time it was applied to soil. In the second study it was found that inoculated Salmonella survived slightly longer in nursery manure slurry stored at 4 C than in sow or feeder manures. At 37 C no Salmonella was recoverd after a week from any samples and at 25 C the organisms survived up to 90d. At 4 C Salmonella survived 300d in the manure slurry. While Salmonella did not grow in any of the samples, its ability to survive in manure slurry at cooler temperatures suggests that organisms can survive both over the winter and possibly during summer storage in reservoirs in Manitoba. In the third study, which examined the effects of exposure to seasonal temperature sequences upon Salmonella survival in soils amended with hog manure from a nursery barn, it was found that the organisms survived better in the clay loam than the sandy soil and survived best when soil moisture was higher. Regardless of season at manure application, the largest decrease in Salmonella viability occurred within one week. Salmonella survived 180d) in both soils during the summer-winter exposure but was not$longest (isolated after 160d from sandy soil exposed to other seasonal treatments. For all but one treatment, reduction in Salmonella viability was rapid enough to suggest that a 30d delay between field application of manure in the spring or fall and use of the land would provide reasonable assurance that crop and animal contamination by Salmonella originally present in the manure would be minimized.