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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:
Management of Disease – The UK Foot and Mouth Disease Experience
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2002 | No Comments
Foot and mouth disease is a highly infectious viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals characterized by fever, loss of production, and vesicles on the mouth, feet, and teats. It is considered to be the most contagious disease of all animal virus diseases. February 19th, 2001 saw the first case of FMD in the UK since 1981. Infection was acquired at the abattoir. FMD transmits through movement of infected animals, feeding of animal by-products, and contact with mechanically carried FMD virus or aerosol spread. Carrier cattle can shed the disease and cause new outbreaks, but this is rare. FMD began appearing mainly in the west of England and southern Scotland and Wales. Infected sheep spread the disease to Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, France, and the Netherlands. Slaughter policies were extended to neighbouring farms of infected farms (within a 3 km radius). Slaughter was to be completed within 24 hours of diagnosis and 48 hours for neighbouring farms. Planning before an outbreak would have been helpful in improving the disease eradication procedure. Because the disease started in pigs, the spread to sheep confused the control program. Farmers did not pay enough attention to the disease when moving between flocks. The FMD virus had almost certainly been introduced with infected meat that was imported illegally and by feeding waste food to pigs that had come into contact with the virus. Carcass disposal quickly became a problem as there were too many to bury, too many to burn, and rendering plants were overwhelmed. The closure of public footpaths due to possible spreading of the disease had negative effects on the tourism industry. FMD can affect ruminants following recovery of disease, or even animals that have been protected by vaccination (even so, immunity lasts only 6 months). Vaccinations and close monitoring can help to re-establish an FMD-free status.
Hour of Weaning, Photoperiod and Weaning to Estrus Interval in Sows
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Sows are usually weaned at a time of day most convenient for processing the weanlings, with little thought as to any effect it may have on the sow’s return to heat. However, with a goal of optimizing pregnancy rate and litter size, having better control over the weaning to estrus or heat interval (WEI) and time of breeding becomes extremely important. Research with the University of Manitoba sow herd at the Glenlea Research Station has been focusing on determining whether the hour of weaning, as well as the photoperiod the sows are in, can impact the WEI and the time of ovulation. Improving the predictability of WEI and ovulation will help optimize breeding management and reproductive performance of sows. In the first phase of the research, conducted as part of the Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree of Kelly Bowen, multiparous Cotswold sows were housed under a short photoperiod (9 hours of light) from entry into the farrowing barn at 105 days of pregnancy, throughout their 17-day lactation and during the rebreeding period. Sows were weaned either as soon as the lights came on at 8:00 AM or at 4:45 PM, just before lights went off, with the idea that any differences would show up by weaning at these two extremes of the day. Following from these initial studies, the recent M.Sc. research of Jennifer Burt has investigated the actual timing of ovulation, with real-time ultrasonography, following 8:00 AM weaning, as well as the influence of longer day-lengths (photoperiod) during lactation. Sows were kept under either long days (14 hours light) or short days (9 hours light) throughout their time in the farrowing barn until weaning at 17 days. Breeding barn photoperiod was at 9 hours of light as is routine in our Glenlea Swine Research Unit. Combined, these investigations clearly demonstrate that sows kept under short photoperiod during 17 day lactation and weaned as soon as lights come on, have less variable WEI than do those sows weaned later in the day or kept under longer photoperiod during lactation. In effect more sows under short day-lengths and weaned early in the day, began their standing heat period between 8:00 AM and noon when heat checks are routinely conducted. With time of ovulation being fairly consistent from actual estrus onset in these sows, being able to accurately determine the onset of heat ensures more reliable time of insemination to optimize conception and subsequent litter size.
Alternative housing systems for pigs: Influences on growth, composition, and pork quality
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A growing interest has been shown in alternative pig
production systems because of the low capital cost of
outdoor systems, which varies from 40 to 70% of the cost for conventional indoor systems. Concerns for animal welfare and awareness of niche
marketing opportunities have increased interest in the
production of free-range animals characteristics.
The overall objectives of these experiments
were to examine the effects of alternative pig housing
systems on growth and meat quality measures using
both controlled university trials and field studies. It was found that pigs finished in alternative and outdoor systems had
carcass and pork quality characteristics similar to those
of pigs finished in conventional indoor systems on slatted
flooring. In mild climates, pigs housed outdoors may
grow faster than pigs housed indoors during warm
months. Pig birth environment may play an important
role in growth and performance throughout the finishing
period. Alternative pig housing systems, such as
bedded facilities or outdoor finishing, can be successful
under proper management. Seasonal differences in
growth may exist with pigs finished outdoors. Further
research comparing pigs born outdoors and indoors
should be conducted to examine differences in growth,
meat quality, and pig welfare that may exist in conventional
and alternative finishing systems.
Effects of Dietary Ingredients on Manure Characteristics and Odorous Emissions from Swine
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Two feeding studies were conducted to examine the impact of dietary inclusion of specific feed ingredients on manure characteristics and manure odor. In one study, 72 finishing pigs were used to evaluate the effect fo distillers dried grains with soluables on pig performance, manure characteristics and odorous emissions. TjheeThree diets containing 0, 5, and 10% DDGS were fed during four, 6-week periods. Week 1 served as a dietary adjustment period. Animals wre housed in two feeding rooms with one treatment per room. A new group of animals was used nfor each feeding period. Diets were replicated four times. Rooms were equipped with four individual shallow manure storage pits that were cleaned once weekly. On day 4 and 7 of each week, manure pit samples, for chemical nalysis, and air samples for olfactometry analysis, were collected from each room. Odor dilution threshold was greater on day7 than day 4 of manure storage across all treatments. No treatment differences in manure compostion were noted. In the second study, weaned pigs were fed isonnitrogenous diets containing 0, 1.5 or 3% bloodmeal. Pigs were housed by diet in one or four individual feeding rooms. A new group of pigs was used for each of the two, 4-week feeding periods. During period 1, the 3% bloodmeal diet was fed in two of the four rooms; the 0% bloodmeal diet was fed in two rooms during period 2. Manure samples, for chemical analysis, and air samples for olfactometry analysis were collected 2 days per week during week 2 through 4. No significant treatment differences were observed for odor dillution threshold. Longer manure storage time, 6 days versus 4 days, resulted in largeer odor dilution ratio. Manure composition was unaltered by storage time. Results suggest that odor intensifies during storage.
Hydrological Properties of a Clay Loam Soil after Long-term Cattle Manure Application
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Public Health Concerns for Neighbors of Large-Scale Swine Production Operations
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Nutrient Model for Setting Phosphorous Application Limits – year 2 – Validation
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With the increase in the livestock industry in Manitoba, there is more manure that must be managed in an environmentally acceptable manner. Nutrient content of the manure and its addition to land is one of the aspects that needs to be managed. For nitrogen (N), the issue is more or less resolved by ensuring the N addition matches the crop requirements, so that on average there is little or no residual environmentally important (soluble) N. For phosphorus (P), the issue is not as simple because crops cannot in a single season remove all the environmentally important P. The reason is that the P sorbs strongly to soil particles, and the environmental importance comes to a large extent from erosion. The Nutrient Loading Model (NLM) was designed to be a tool that a regulator could use to set P loading limits (P fertilization or manure-loading limits) based on the effect of P on stream water quality. Phase 1 of the project (1999-2000) developed the model. Phase 2, described here, considered improvements to the model, benchmarked the model against other models available for this purpose, and validated the model. The benchmarking process involved comparison of the capabilities of 7 models to that of the NLM. These models varied from complex research-level models with far too many parameters for practical application, to simple look up tables in use now for regulatory purpose. In general, these other models were not readily useable with available data and did not have attributes that were important to add to the NLM. The validation of the NLM was the major undertaking. It was not possible to conduct experiments or measurements within this project, so the emphasis was to identify existing data and programs in Manitoba that met the requirements. There are quite a few programs in Manitoba related to stream quality. The drawback is that they are conducted by a number of agencies with differing mandates and differing abilities to consistently measure the important parameters. Four case studies were selected. These included reaches of the Whitemouth River, Joubert Creek, the Seine River and the west watershed of the South Tobacco Creek. The river reaches were about 10 km long, so there were many crops and landscape features included. The reaches were chosen to be predominantly through crop land, but there were inevitably other sources of P to the river, such as leaching from overhanging vegetation. In all cases, drawing the required information from the available data required assumptions and some interpolation. Also, no calibration for each river reach was carried out, this created an unbiased test. For better results, the NLM could be calibrated before application and there is data to do this for the Whitemouth River, Joubert Creek as well as the South Tobacco Creek watersheds. Given these uncertainties, the results of the NLM for the rainfall events considered agreed reasonably well with the validation data. There are many ways the NLM could be implemented in a management, guidelines or regulatory role. It was envisioned to be a tool for a regulator, where an upper limit application rate of P to soils is determined based on the concentration of P in the receiving water. This application probably needs to be quite generic with respect to watershed characteristics. For example, it would not be fair to impose guidelines on a farmer in the lower regions of the watershed that are different from those for a farmer in the upper regions. Several alternative application modes are suggested, one of which is the concept of a water parcel. This water parcel is the water contributed by a unit of land to the total drainage effluent of a watershed, and it contains the P eroded (or leached) from that unit of land. This concept is for an annual average water and P loss, on the assumption that the appropriate integration time is a year. The P in this parcel of water may be subject to some fluvial processes such as sedimentation, but ultimately it is this P concentration that may, for example, impact the North Basin of Lake Winnipeg. It is proposed that the NLM is ready now for such an application.