In growing pigs, chlortetracycline induces a reversible green bone discoloration and a persistent increase of bone mineral density dependent of dosing regimen

Posted in: Ontario Pork, Pork Insight Articles by admin on August 8, 2012 | No Comments

Researchers attempted to find out how chlortetracycline, when given to pigs, impacted the pigs bone color and bone density. Pigs were either put on a diet that consisted of no chlortetracycline or with 800ppm of chlortetacycline. The pigs started on the diet at either 28 days old or 84 days old. Pigs were put on the diet for either 28 days or 56 days. Discoloration of the lumbar vertebrae and bone density were assessed from randomly selected pigs every 28 days until the pigs reached 168 days of age. The longer the pigs were held on the medicated diet and the older they were when put on the diet, saw increased chances of bone discoloration. Bone density improved the longer the pigs were held on the medicated diet. The researchers concluded that the bone discolorationon was reversable and application of the medicated diet caused permanent bone density improvement.

Development of Pasteurized Liquid Swine Manure as a Plant Disease Control Product for High-Value Crops

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Liquid swine manure that is put through a composter set at a temperature of 55-65⁰  comes out of the composter with no E.coli or salmonella, despite not losing any nutrients. The Manure also has no smell unless it becomes anaerobic. The process is simple requiring only two pumps, one for adding air and the other for controlling the pH level (adding acids or molasses). The compost produced is considered by its researchers to be a safe and effective fertilizer. Holding manure at over 60⁰ for at least 15 minutes is said to kill E.coli in the manure. The optimum pH for growth is 7.5-8, in the composter the pH level was held at 7.5, at 8 there would have been ammonia produced. At temperatures higher than 65⁰bacteria would begin to grow in the composter. In soils with low pH levels the highly acidic LSM becomes toxic to plant pathogens making it easier to control disease. The application of LSM to potato soils was found to help reduce potato scab disease and plant parasitic nematodes to near zero. The application of sulfuric acid can reduce potato scab if the soil pH level is held up for the entire growing season, there is no long term disease control from sulphuric acid because the soil levels can return to control levels. Applying LSM was just as effective in reducing disease when applied a year before the crop was plant as when applied the same  year the crop was planted. If applied in the right way LSM and sulphuric acid can be an easy was to fight disease with minimal requirements such as a manure spreader.

Immunological Mechanisms Affecting Angiogenesis and Their Relation to Porcine Pregnancy Success

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Prenatal mortality due to loss of lymphocyte-promoted endometrial angiogenesis is being investigated as a major cause of litter reductions during pregnancy in pigs. This review discusses immune mechanisms influencing porcine endometrial angiogenesis as well as additional signalling molecules that may play important roles in the compromise
of peri-implantation and mid-gestation fetal pig survival. These include dendritic cells, signalling molecules such as toll-like receptors, chemokines and ficolins. Together these cells and molecules regulate immune responses and, ideally, protect the mother and prevent immune-based conceptus losses. Dendritic cells were recently shown to be angiogenic. Their tolerogenic role at the maternal-fetal interface coupled with the ability to secrete and respond to angiogenic factors suggests that dendritic cells are the key coordinators of angiogenesis at the porcine maternal-fetal interface.
Chemokines coordinate the localization of immune effector and endothelial cells. The balance between pro-angiogenic and anti-angiogenic chemokines is addressed in relation to conceptus viability. Ficolins, components of the lectin-mediated complement activation pathway, are used for self/non-self recognition. Together, these components
of the immune system could regulate lymphocyte- and non-lymphocyte-promoted endometrial angiogenesis to determine conceptus survival.

Viscosity dependent dual-permeability modeling of liquid 2 manure movement in layered, macroporous, tile drained soil

Posted in: Ontario Pork, Pork Insight Articles by admin on August 1, 2012 | No Comments

Personal Profile – Felina Tan

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Personal profile of Felina Tan featured in the Prairie Swine Centred on Swine Volume 18 Number 2 newsletter.

Thirty Five Years of Change

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After a Bachelor of Science degree and 2
years of Veterinary Medicine, a summer
accident while managing the local golf
course lead to a year off, not being able to return
to classes after missing the first 4 weeks of the
school year. In the fall of 1979, I heard that the
University of Saskatchewan was looking for a
Stockman to work at the nearly constructed swine
facility located near the Goodale farm East of
Saskatoon, and so it began.

The National Sow Housing Conversion Project: initial pilot and demonstrations

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The use of stall housing for gestating
sows has come under criticism for being
too restrictive and failing to provide
adequately for the welfare of sows. From 1st
January 2013, a legislated ban was implemented
in the EU, banning the use of sow stalls from 28
days post breeding. In 2007, the largest pork
producers in the USA and Canada pledged to
transition their sow housing to group systems
over the next 10 years. Now, increasing numbers
of food retailers, including Tim Hortons, Burger
King and McDonalds, have pledged to source
pork from producers who have developed plans
for conversion to group housing. In addition the
supermarket chains Safeway and Costco recently
announced plans to develop a stall-free pork
supply chain. Consequently, the Canadian pork
industry is under increasing pressure to convert
existing gestation stall housing for its 1.3 million
sows to group systems.

Interactions between sow temperament and housing system on factors influencing sow longevity

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With the move towards group sow
housing systems in North America,
developing management practices that
optimise sow performance and longevity in these
systems will be critical to the success and long
term profitability of swine operations. A variety of
group gestation systems have been developed,
each a different level of competition sows must
cope with. How well an individual sow copes in
each system will depend on the housing type and
management, but also on the animal’s individual
temperament.

Evaluation of a Biotrickling Filtration System for Treatment of Exhaust Air from a Swine Barn

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Biotrickling filters are considered to be the
next development for animal housing
since they are easier to manage and are
smaller in size compared to other exhaust air
filtration technologies. Various configurations of
biotrickling filters and bioscrubbers have been
studied and showed a very good potential for
controlling emissions from pig buildings. A number
of operating conditions have been specified
for biotrickling filters (Deshusses and Gabriel,
2005). Design values have been suggested for
bed height, bed cross-sectional area, packing
nominal size, empty bed residence time (EBRT),
pressure drop, air temperature, liquid recycle
rate, pH of the recycled liquid, and some typical
control parameters. However, further work is
needed in order to realize the best design that will
perform effectively when installed in actual swine
production facilities.

Contract Research Services at Prairie Swine Centre We Do Research – It’s Our Job!

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You may already know about the Prairie Swine
Centre but are you familiar with all that we
do? What unique characteristics and abilities
have we lurking in the shadows that you know little
about? Let’s get reacquainted.
Of course we do research. It is our main
objective and raison d’etre but I would like to take
the time to remind you about the breadth and
scope of our abilities. For starters unlike many
research facilities ours is large and follows standard
commercial practices. We are a 330 sow farrow
to finish operation located just outside of the city of
Saskatoon. Our barn functions as a typical North
American swine barn with typical production, for
example we produce 27 pigs weaned per sow per
year. So along with the usual daily challenges of
running a hog operation we add on the intricacies of
running scientific experiments.