Zoonotic Diseases From Pigs

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on April 1, 2009 | No Comments

Zoonotic diseases are transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans. To be a zoonotic disease the animal carrier may or may not have clinical symptoms, and the disease needs to be naturally transmissible. Modern pork production has different risks than those of less developed areas, and this paper will only look at modern production diseases. The diseases examined will be classified as foodborne or occupational zoonoses. Salmonella is one of the most common foodborne illnesses. Swine show clinical symptoms with only 3 of the strains, so surveillance and quality assurance programs can be used to monitor for other strains throughout the production chain. Y. enterocolitica has 6 biotypes, 5 of which are human pathogens, and 11/60 serotypes which cause clinical symptoms in humans. In Ontario, the majority of confirmed cases were linked to pork, and finishing pigs can often shed the pathogen. Toxoplasma gondii is a worldwide parasite. Cats are the definite host and support the sexual cycle, and the asexual cycle can occur in all warm-blooded animals. Human infection can be asymptomatic or can have a severe impacts up to death. Toxoplasmosis is not a concern in swine, however it can be found on pork products. Campylobacter primary is a foodborne pathogen through poultry, but can come from swine as well. The influenza virus is one of the major occupational zoonoses with swine. H3N2 and H1N1 strains and their reassortments can be found in swine herds, and there remains concern that a highly pathogenic strain could be transmitted from avian to swine to humans. Streptococcus suis is another occupational zoonoses, but only serotype 2 of the possible 35 serotypes can cause illness in humans.

The USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System

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The USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) collects data on swine herd production numbers, management, and herd health approximately every 5 years. The NAHMS commodity study consists of 5 phases. The Needs Assessment Phase uses focus groups and surveys to determine which specific issues should be addressed. The Study Design Phase determines which states, the sampling number, and which data collection instruments are to be used. The Study Implementation Phase involves staff training, promotion, and execution of the data collection plan. The Study Analysis Phases generates descriptive and inferential estimates, and possible publications of the inferential estimates. Finally, the Information Dissemination Phase distributes the information gained from the study through full reports, short information sheets, and presentations. The Swine 2006 study collected data on baselines for diseases and disease agents, management, disease modeling, and surveillance systems through two interviews and the collection of blood and/or fecal samples. In 2007 a Swine Small Enterprise study was conducted, and the focus was on pseudorabies and classic swine fever risk from feral swine. Some of the problems NAHMS encounters with voluntary studies include difficulty in finding interviewees due to the use of contractors or confidentiality agreements, avoiding over-surveying participants, and communication between the various agencies, offices, and representatives involved in the study.

Benchmarking and Tools to Maximize Profit

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Benchmarking is useful on various scales, and for both production and financial comparisons. Agri Stats allows for monthly benchmarking for swine producers, and currently has finisher and sow barns participating. Benchmarking requires continuous input of data, but producers can gain perspective on how their facility compares and where it can improve. Agri Stats can breakdown financial performance, so producers can see which area is behind. More general production numbers, such as pigs/sow mated/year, are more useful for comparison than highly detailed production numbers, as production numbers do not necessarily equate profit.

Pork Production Versus Consumer Demands

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Canada’s pork industry relies heavily on exporting, so the rise of the Canadian dollar, rise of feed costs, increased global production, and lack of competiveness by processors has had a large impact on the industry. Niche markets offer an opportunity to increase consumer demand. These markets can include pork that is local, free range, antibiotic free, natural, naturally raised, organic, or breed specific. DuBreton’s genetic division, Genetiporc, is a leader in herd health, and integrates research and development and company benefits into the vertical chain. DuBreton also utilizes programs to produce organic or natural pork to cater to niche markets.

Managing Highly Prolific Sows

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Hyperprolific sows require different management, and come with different benefits and consequences than less prolific sows. Country effects are management or herd features that occur due to a country’s cultural impact on production. France and Denmark are two countries with hyperprolific sows, and a country effect in both is the use of prostaglandins to induce farrowing. In France, prostaglandins are widely used, but in Denmark they are banned. Hyperprolific herds may have litter sizes that exceed functional teats on the sows, so sow selection has been used to increase the percent of sows with 16 teats. Management tactics have to be changed with hyperprolific sows to manage increased preweaning mortality and overcrowding issues. As well, as litter size increases the number of piglets with low birth weight (<1kg) will increase. However, mortality may not be entirely dependent on birth weight, but may involve maturity and vitality also. Feeding management of hyperprolific sows is another aspect for producers to consider. Overfeeding through gestation appears to have no consistent effect, and overfeeding during the last week before farrowing seems to show a positive effect. Batch farrowing is a management strategy that can be used, and is used in France. Altrenogest can be used to synchronize ovulation in a batch, and prostaglandins can be used to synchronize farrowing in batches. One consequence of hyperprolific sows is the increased use of cross-fostering, which can be overused and lead to wide variation in piglets origins in each litter. Hyperprolificy can increase profits, but at this point it is probably wise to focus on other herd aspects including reducing preweaning mortality.

Roadmap for a Competitive Pork Industry in Canada

Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2009 | No Comments

The major challenges set out in the Revitalization Strategy are to ‘package’ or
systematize the marketing platform and to build the marketing capability which
links production, processing and marketing in a highly connected manner.
This is not easy. Indeed this requires a set of industry investment strategies
that create new business structures between producers and processors.
However, the alternative is the continuation of a system that is clearly not
functioning well in the present and certainly is not positioned to compete with
well organized systems in other countries around the world.
If the fundamental challenges within the Canadian pork industry are not
addressed, the conditions that have created the distress which is currently at
play will only re-emerge in the future. At best, the Canadian industry may
continue to supply the domestic market but lose its export markets. At worst, it
may be unable to compete at all and Canadian consumers will rely totally on
pork products that are imported from pork producing countries.

Antibiotic Resistance – The Global Perspective

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Antibiotic resistance is a serious public health issue, but the magnitude of its
importance to animal health is poorly understood. Most of the resistance
problems in humans arise from poor antibiotic use practices in human medicine, nevertheless, there is good evidence that antibiotic use in animals
increases the prevalence of resistance in some important bacterial pathogens
of humans, including Salmonella and Campylobacter. There is increasing
pressure to ensure that antibiotic use in all fields, both human and animal, is
prudent. Regulatory authorities are also under pressure to increase controls
on approval and use of antibiotics in animals, but there is agreement that any
such controls must first be justified on scientific grounds. Particular attention
has focused on antibiotic growth promoters and antibiotics critically important
for use in humans. There is good evidence that reductions in use of growth
promoters in finisher pigs would have few adverse outcomes, but reductions in
weaned pigs should be accompanied by alternate methods to deal with
diarrhea. Critically important antibiotics should be reserved for therapeutic use
of serious bacterial infections in pigs, and group treatments of these drugs
should be discouraged.

Digestible and net energy content of regular and white flakes of canola meals of black and yellow Brassica napus and B. junceae in pigs

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An experiment (factorial 3×2) was conducted in growing pigs to
measure the Digestible Energy (DE) content and estimate the Net Energy (NE) content of 3 different Canola Meal (CM): yellow B. napus (YBN); black B. napus (BBN) and yellow B. junceae (BJ) that were
toasted (regular flakes) or not (white flakes). A basal diet and 6 CM-based
diets (2/3 basal diet, 1/3 CM) were prepared. Forty-two growing pigs (28 kg; 6
per treatment) were kept in metabolic cages for 18 d and their faeces totally
collected for the last 10 d. The digestibilities (DM, N and energy) and DE and
NE content were measured. The NE content was estimated by means of
prediction equations based on the DE content and chemical composition of
the CM. Differences in the ‘CM type’ effect were observed; the YBN
presenting higher DM and energy digestibilities than BBN (P < 0.05). This could be ascribed to a lower NDF content (162 vs 217 g/kg, respectively) of the yellow-seeded canolas. A higher DE and NE content was observed for YBN as compared to BBN and BJ (P = 0.007). No difference was, however, observed for the 'CM type x flake' interaction or a flake effect (P > 0.05).

Make Biosecurity a Priority

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With the pork industry already suffering major financial stress from 18 months of operating losses, the recent outbreak of Type A H1N1 influenza came at the worst
possible time. Although the virus has not been found in pigs, it is estimated the disease has cost the industry nearly $500 million due to the misnaming of the condition
as “swine flu.” It was announced last week that USDA is taking steps to make a viral master seed available to develop vaccines that protect swine from the Type A H1N1 influenza. In
addition, it has been announced that a human vaccine may be available by October.
Meanwhile, producers must continue to take every precaution in protecting their herds against introduction of the virus. “If a worker has been exposed to influenza from a friend or family member and they must enter a swine barn, they really need to be wearing a valveless, well-fitted N-95
respirator which will help prevent aerosol emitted from a sneeze being transmitted to the pigs,” says Wagstrom. If a person has body aches or is running a temperature
they may be pre-symptomatic for a flu infection. A sneeze increases the danger of virus transmission.
Employees must also be instructed how to put on, position, adjust, and remove respirators. In addition, the NPB recommends that all swine barn workers receive flu
vaccination in the fall.

Estimation of the metabolizable energy content of meat and bone meal for swine

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Differences in species of origin, quantity of bones, and other factors produce variability in the proximate composition
and energy value of meat and bone meal (MBM). An assay of MBM from different sources that are different in composition may provide a prediction equation that is robust enough to be used in the prediction of energy value of MBM. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the apparent ME (AME) and nitrogen-corrected ME (AMEn) of 21 MBM samples and establish equations for predicting energy values of MBM for swine. The result of this study showed that MBM is, in addition to being a source of CP and minerals, a good energy source with an average AME value of 3,070 kcal/kg. In addition, the current study highlighted the potential of using proximate compositions for predicting the AME and AMEn of MBM for pigs. The study also established that in addition to the proximate compositions, factors that influence the utilization of these fractions, especially fat and CP, may have substantial impact on energy utilization of MBM. We believe that although other factors extrinsic to MBM may have influence on its energy utilization, the use of proximate fractions as well as the characteristics of these fractions should be sufficient for predicting the energy value of MBM for swine.

For more information the full article can be found at http://jas.fass.org/