A Dosage Based Approach to Water Soluble Medicating

Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2005 | No Comments

A benefits to water medication is that one individual can treat a large amount of pigs in one dose. The medication itself designates the dilution factor in regard to administering it into the water line. One of the limitations of this however is that it does not indicate administration on a per kilogram basis. In order for antibiotics to be effective it needs to be given in the body in a high enough concentration. Some hindrances of water medication include: 1) Medicator calibration; 2) Animal health (sick animals may drink less); 3) Water accessibility; 4) Taste of the medication; 5) Temperature; 6) Stage of production; and 7) Weight.

You can never be 100% certain that water treatment is reaching each pig. What you can do however is increase the likelihood of effectiveness. Dr. Tim Snider has developed a “dosage based” approach to this:

1. Incorporate the desired dose for each product to be used
2. Calculate the amount of product required per day for the group
3. Calculate the amount of product required per treatment period
4. Calculate the cost of the treatment
5. Cost comparison between products

It is possible to get veterinarians to prescribe off-label usage in order to incorporate this system.

What’s the Game Plan for Swine in Case of a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak?

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Foreign animal diseases of most concern to swine include foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), swine vesicular disease, vesicular stomatitis, hog cholera, African swine fever, and Pseudorabies. The objective is to eradicate any outbreak by preventing the transmission of the infectious agent by slaughter of infected animals and their contacts, pre-emptive slaughter of high-risk herds, quarantine of suspect premises, and more. In the event of a disease outbreak such as FMD, the CFIA must be contacted. Once diagnosed they will carry out slaughter of clinically infected pigs, quarantine and movement control due to the contagiousness of FMD, pre-emptive slaughter of susceptible animal species in herds that have been exposed to the infection, tracing and surveillance of those facilities linked to the FMD infected premise, vaccinate, treat animal products and by-products, decontaminate, monitor wildlife, zone and regionalize, and decide on the actions and restrictions of a declared infected premise. Positive FMD premises are left vacant for a minimum of 21 days after cleaning and disinfecting. Blood samples from the re-stocked herd must be analyzed before shipment. There is a certain protocol that must be followed when considering a vaccination. Canada can re-apply for FMD free status, which would allow the resumption of normal trade 3 months after the last case of FMD.

Differentiated Parity Management

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Almost everything that sets up sows for a good lifetime performance happens before first weaning. Age, weight, and back fat at first estrus have a very little effect on the longevity of the sow. In reality, general body condition at first weaning is probably the most important factor for retention in the herd. The most important factors appear to be: full incorporation of the animal into the herd prior to breeding, breeding gilts at the second estrus, breeding gilts between 135 and 145 kg of body weight, breeding gilts at 190 days, and breeding gilts with 15 to 17 mm of back fat. In any system, it is optimum to know weight, age, and back fat at first mating. Many producers have gilt development units with a specific section or building for gilts, and have special feed for first lactation, but still do not achieve good results. This could be because of poor P1 management. New breeding herd entrants must be adapted to the health status before 130 days of age. Gilt development can be improved by giving them 0.9 square meters per animal, using a specialized diet, using a specific light pattern, performing boar exposure after 150 days of age, and vaccinations. At 185 days (or 125 kg) gilts should be moved into the breeding barn in pens of 10. Direct boar contact is essential. Incoming gilts that have not shown estrus after 28 days should be culled. Estrus should be detected twice per day and mated 12 hours after detection, and then every 12 hours after that until the gilt no longer stands. Once in the gestation barn the gilts should have 3 different feeding regimes based on weight and back fat. After 80 days of gestation the gilts should be moved to the farrowing units. Vaccinations should be done and diet increased. Induction should occur at 115 days of gestation. After 6 days of lactation, milk replacement may need to be added to the farrowing crates. At weaning, all P1 sows should receive Regumate for 5 days, starting on the day of weaning. After this treatment boar exposure should start and mating should begin after 12 hours of detected estrus.

Tariff-rate Quotas and Agricultural Trade: an application to the agricultural free-trade negotiations between the MERCOSURE and the EU

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Preselection of sex of offspring in swine for production: current status of the process and its application

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Responses in production and body composition traits in ad libitum fed pigs from lines selected for high and low growth rate on a fixed ration

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Large White pigs from lines which had been divergently selected over 4 years for high and for low post-weaning daily gain on a fixed but restricted ration of approximately 80% of ad libitum, were sampled for growth testing on ad libitum individual feeding during a 6-week period starting at 50 kg. It is concluded that selection for high growth rate on restricted feeding will produce pigs which perform more profitably on ad libitum individual feeding.

Organic Farming Scenarios: Operational Analysis and Costs of implementing Innovative Technologies

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The objective of this study has been to design a number of farm scenarios representing future plausible and internally consistent organic farming enterprises based on milk, pig, and plant production and use these farm scenarios as the basis for the generation of generalised knowledge on labour and machinery input and costs. Also, an impact analysis and feasibility study of introducing innovative technologies into the organic production system has been invoked. The labour demand for the production farms ranged from 6
1 to 25
3hha1 and from 19
4 to 39
6hLU1 (LU is livestock units) for work in the animal houses. Model validation results showed that farm managerial tasks amount to 14–19% of the total labour requirement. The impact of introducing new technologies and work methods related to organic farming was evaluated using two innovative examples of weed control: a
weeding robot and an integrated system for band steaming. While these technologies increased the capital investment required, the labour demand was reduced by 83–85% in sugar beet and 60% in carrots, which would improve profitability by 72–85% if fully utilised. Profitability is reduced, if automation efforts result in insufficient weed removal compared to manual weeding. Specifically, the benefit gained by robotic weeding was sensitive to the weed intensity and the initial price of the equipment, but a weeding efficiency of under 25% is required to make it unprofitable. This approach demonstrates the feasibility of applying and testing operational models in organic farming systems in the continued evaluation and documentation of labour and machinery inputs.

Biosecurity & You

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Dr. Shawn Davidson offers key components of biosecurity and attempts to identify specific pathogens that are biosecurity risks. There should be a 30 to 60 day quarantine period for any new stock entering the herd to protect from organisms such as Strep suis and Haemophilus parasuis. The quarantine facility should ideally have its own staff. There should only be one source of breeding stock rather than multiple. 3.2 km between farms appears to be adequate to prevent area spread of diseases such as PRRS and Mycoplasma hypopneumoniae. The ability to put large distances between barns makes building an operation in Saskatchewan and Western Canada optimal. In regards to transportation, trucks should be thoroughly washed and dried to tackle possible PRRS, and load-out chutes should have a “point of no return” so that workers do not enter the trucks and vice versa. Personnel who do enter the barn should shower through and change into clothing supplied in order to prevent PRRS, TGE, and zoonotic diseases such as Salmonella and influenza. Semen brought in from external sources should be free of PRRS or PCV2, or at the minimum have a sufficient semen-monitoring program. Rodents (e.g. – rats, mice, birds, etc.) should be minimized, and any barn supplies that may pose a risk should be disinfected.

Compensation Measures – A Necessary Condition for a Successful Foreign Animal Disease Effort

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The Canadian swine and pork industries have a huge interest in preventing foreign animal diseases from entering Canada. Today, Canadian producers sell their products to more than 90 different countries worldwide. An outbreak of a foreign animal disease such as foot-and-mouth disease would cause a negative economic impact of over $45 billion! In Canada it has been more than 40 years since an outbreak, with hog cholera in the 60s being the most recent. The key concern for producers is what is the compensation for destruction of infected animals, preventative stamping out in control zones, and loss of income during the interval before restocking is permitted. An adequate compensation program must compensate maximums per animal, compensate provisions must be equitable across species, differences in values between commercial and breeding values must be recognized, must be based on market intelligence and data, and allowances must be provided to account for the length of time before the affected farms are able to once again generate revenue.

Non-Negotiables of Gilt Development

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Effective gilt management programs that will meet replacement targets from a smaller pool of gilts with improved lifetime breeding performance are urgently needed. More efficient gilt management improves both the utilization of space and labour, and actually achieves a flow of gilts within the design specifications of the gilt facility. This will ultimately reduce annual replacement rates, improve sow condition, decrease sow death losses, and increase labour efficiency and space utilization. Effective gilt pool management strategies allow producers to achieve desired bodily and physiologic targets for gilts at first service. It also maintains economic efficiencies of a small, well-managed gilt pool. Achieving desired body and physiological targets is essential for maximizing lifetime productivity of the female. Gilts should be bred at a target weight of 135 to 150 kg regardless of age and back fat level. Measuring back fat will not provide a meaningful measure of sow body condition in terms of impacts on longevity and lifetime performance. Gilts should be bred at second estrus (if the body weight is at least 135 kg). Proper selection and management of these replacement gilts should be an integral part of any breeding herd. Only gilts that have been chosen as ‘select gilts’ should be bred to enter the sow herd. The overall targets of any gilt development program should be 80% of gilts selected within 28 days, 100% gilts bred at second estrus, 100% bred at target weight, and 85% bred during a 5 day period. On a daily basis starting at about 170 days of age, gilts should be removed from their pens and taken to a designated heat-checking area to allow full contact with a team of mature, active, vasectomized boars. As gilts exhibit an HNS, they must be weighed and back fat/loin eye must be checked. If they can be bred at their second estrus they should be taken to an individual stall.