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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:
Responses of young red jungle fowl and White Leghorn layers to familiar and unfamiliar social stimuli
Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2004 | No Comments
This study examined the social preferences and reactions to strangers in young White Leghorns and red jungle fowl. Chicks were tested in two runway tests. In the first test, the chicks could choose between familiar and unfamiliar breed members. In the second test, the chicks could choose between unfamiliar chicks of their own breed and the other breed. An open field test was used to assess spacing and agonistic interactions of 28 pairs of chicks per breed (in half the pairs, chicks were unfamiliar to each other). Leghorns showed preferences for familiar chicks and avoidance of unfamiliar social stimuli during the first runway test. During the second runway test, both breeds showed preferences for their own breed members, but this was more pronounced in Leghorns. During the open field test, the Leghorns were more involved in agonistic interactions than red jungle fowl chicks. The results of this study help explain why Leghorns are less able to cope with novel social and environmental stimuli. Therefore, their welfare might be compromised in situations where they encounter unfamiliar birds.
Warming up for C.O.O.L.: American Viewpoint
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Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) has been a household name in the food sector for roughly two years and is basically now law. As of October 2004 (in the USA anyways), COOL is mandatory (law), implementation was about 2 billion USD, industry stakeholders had their input heard, and more concerning the passage of COOL into law. Reasons for supporting COOL include the fact that people have a right to know where their food came from and may pay a premium for meat of a different origin. This theory is flawed, and many think that politicians that have no real understanding of agriculture and economics passed COOL into law. In conclusion, COOL is a shortsighted attempt by anti-trade members in the US to construct a complex and costly trade barrier to trade in livestock and red meat. There is little economic merit other than consumer rights, even though consumers indicate they have no interest in the origin. The poultry industry is excluded from this, which helps it due to the fact that the costs of COOL would be highest for pork and beef.
Practicalities and Pitfalls of Semen Evaluation
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Current AI techniques utilize 2.5 to 3 billion sperm per dose, yet there are still many other factors that influence fertility with AI. Yet despite the numerous measures for semen quality, sperm concentration is still the most commonly performed test. Most studies indicate that 2 billion sperm per dose will not limit productivity but will reduce performance. Assessment of sperm concentrations is done by a cell-counting chamber and analysis by spectrophotometers. Both age and collection frequency seems to be the biggest factors when addressing sperm concentration variation. Cell-counting chambers are good because they allow for visual assessment of sperm. Despite it being a time consuming method, it is low cost and fairly accurate. Errors occur typically with sub-sampling, pipetting, filling the counting chamber, dilution of the samples, and errors in counting. Optical density is the most common and practical method used for commercial semen production. Spectrophotometers are used because of their speed and ease of use. It measures the amount of light transmitted through a sample, which is dependent on the number of sperm. Many photometers have predetermined curves that calculate the concentration or provide a chart for conversion of the reading to sperm/mL. Errors from this method can result from improper sampling, pipette error, improper sample holder, incorrect diluent, using the machine wrong, incorrect standard curve, and reading out of the range of the photometer accuracy. Knowledge of the equipment accuracy range and the concentration of the ejaculate could allow a single dilution to be performed that would provide optimal readings within the limits of the spectrophotometer for a wide range of ejaculates. Determining the range of semen concentrations range that will be encountered in the lab could help choose the labs standard dilution rate and give warning when expected values are out of the expected range and reading accuracy for the equipment. It appears that average concentrations today are consistently higher compared to earlier reports. This could be due to lower collection frequency, selection for testes size, greater maturity age, and better health/nutrition/housing. It could be beneficial to produce a grid for ejaculate volumes and concentrations for certain ages of boars. Standard curves should be generated for the optimal reading range of the equipment and investigations should occur when readings fall out of this range.
Variability in Growth, Pig Weights and Hog Marketing Decisions
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Digestible energy value of DON contaminated barley increased by de-hulling
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Infections of cereal grains by fusarium not only lead to reductions in crop yields and quality, but also lead to a reduction in the suitability of the grain as a feed source for swine. This is due to the fact that mycotoxins, most notably deoxynivalenol (DON, vomitoxin), produced by the fungi can reduce feed intake in swine, thereby increasing days to market. Current guidelines recommend keeping DON levels to less than 1 ppm in the final ration in order to avoid problems with feed refusal. The use of a commercial-scale pearling unit can turn DON (vomitoxin)-contaminated barley into a usable feed ingredient for swine diets. Pearling removes the DON and makes the grain acceptable to swine. Additionally, the digestible energy value of the grain is increased by 28% over intact barley. Therefore, commercial scale pearling may serve as a useful technique to improve the utilization of DON-contaminated barley by the swine industry.
Transportation of Early Weaned Piglets: Seasonal Effects
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Segregated early weaning (SEW) has become a standard practice in the swine industry in Canada. Piglets are weaned at an early age (14 – 20 d) and transported to a separate site to reduce the risk of transmission of disease from the sow to piglets. The relocation of early weaned piglets to a separate site necessarily involves transport. These journeys vary in length but typically, in Canada, fall within the 4-20 hr range. Initially, transport vehicles were heated in winter but the industry has moved to winter transport without heating. There is little information on the preferred transport temperature ranges for piglets or on actual temperatures experienced by early weaned piglets under commercial transport.
The objectives of this research were to:
1. Collect information on vehicle temperature in commercial vehicles transporting early weaned piglets during journeys of varying lengths and in different seasons.
2. To determine the effect of season on the behaviour and production of early weaned piglets following transport.
3. To determine the effect of transport factors other than duration and temperature on the behaviour and production of early weaned piglets following transport.
4. To determine the effect of piglet weight at weaning on the behaviour and production of early weaned piglets following transport.
Phosphorus Transformation in Pig Slurry due to Diet and Intermittent Aeration Treatments
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The experiment was conducted to study the transformation of phosphorus (P) in slurry from pigs fed two
different diets, i.e. the regular maize–soya bean meal diet with or without a supplement of 9% sugar beet pulp (SBP). The slurry was collected and treated either without or with aeration and intermittent aeration (aeration on/off ratio=10 h:14 h) at an airflow rate of 06 lm3 s1 for 15 days. Slurry sources and treatments were composed of a 2 by 2 factorial design. The results indicated that aeration increased (probability Po001) the slurry pH by 05–08 within 24 h, from 65 to 70 for the SBP slurry, and from 69 to 77 for the control slurry, but the pH reached 76 and 80 for the SBP and control slurry in 3–4 days. The average pH of the SBP slurry was lower (Po001) than that of the slurry from the control diet (667 versus 738). However, little change in pH was observed in the non-aerated slurry. Aeration decreased total inorganic P, insoluble inorganic P, and soluble P, but increased organic P by approximately 30mg l1. The average organic P in the slurry for both diets with aeration was about 174% higher than that in the same slurry without aeration. Aeration decreased
insoluble inorganic P by about 72% and soluble P by about 45%. The mass balance of P fractions showed transformation of insoluble inorganic P into organic forms during the aeration stage. The insoluble inorganic P took about 68% of the total P in the slurry, so it is essential to perform solid–liquid separation prior to aeration to enhance the efficiency of soluble P removal because insoluble inorganic P is mainly contained in the slurry solids.
Natural Resource and Environmental Issues Related to Hog Expansion in Alberta
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This study identifies environmental issues and natural resources in certain landscapes in Alberta, which have the potential for expansion. The factors to investigate are 1) soil zone, most hog production is concentrated in the Black soil zone; 2) water supply, the expansions of the hog industry was not found to be limited by it; 3) feed supply ,Alberta has more than enough to support the hog industry there; 4) population density, critical when considering the development permit process because of the neighbor complaints about odour and; 5) minimum distance separation (MDS), there must be the appropriate distance for the manure spreading process as well as the facility itself as there needs to be enough land in the area for the amount of manure that is to be spread or else leaching and run-off will be the results.
Alberta’s livestock associations have taken the lead in developing voluntary guidelines to assist municipalities and producers in siting, design and management of new and expanding livestock facilities in order to deal with the environmental issues relating to livestock production. The development of new livestock operations is controlled at the municipal level in Alberta. New operations will have some form of public review and permit process. Well-defined planning approval processes have greatly reduced risks and uncertainties faced by livestock operators and neighboring residents. With all these different factors being taken into consideration, Alberta is attempting to identify where opportunities lie for expansion of the industry. The most important factors were population density and feed supply. Areas of Alberta have now been chosen for further investigation.