Odour and ammonia emission from pig manure as affected by dietary crude protein level

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The main objective in the present study was to determine whether reducing dietary CP level influences odour emission,
odour strength, odour offensiveness and ammonia emission from pig manure and fresh faeces and manure characteristics. In addition, the effects of reducing dietary CP on greenhouse gas concentration in the odorous air above the manure pit were also studied. It was found that reducing dietary crude protein from 15% to 12% in diets for finishing pigs did not reduce odour concentration, emission, hedonic tone and intensity from pig manure, although 9.5% ammonia emission reduction can be achieved for each % dietary CP reduction. The correlation between ammonia and odour emission is low, which means that strategies proved to reduce ammonia emission effectively may not have similar effects on odour emission. More dietary CP reduction may be required to reduce odour concentration and emission from pig manure. However, more odorous compounds in the manure and in the air should be analyzed in order to derive the relationship between dietary alterations and odour strength and offensiveness of the odorous air above the manure pit.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/livsci

Behind The Lines

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As a commentator in the Globe and Mail recently put it, the hog industry in Canada “continues to stagger from crisis to conflict.” Ontario’s industry certainly had both in April and early May. The “swine flu crisis” triggered market speculation and unnecessary trade actions, stripping a reported $30 a hog in just three days from the already low value of pigs on June contracts. At this writing, pork industry leaders are readying an appeal to governments for funding to support them through this crisis. The same reasoning is behind this as with the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy crisis that struck the beef industry in 2003 and which also received funding.

Roadmap for a Competitive Pork Industry in Canada

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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/

Novel H1N1: The ‘pandemic’ evolves

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Finally, it appears all but certain that we shall have a swine-origin H1N1 influenza vaccine sometime in the fall.
Seed strains developed at CDC are now in the hands of manufacturers and both Sanofi -Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline
have announced government contracts to produce a vaccine. Unfortunately, we are still a year or two away from using a tissue culture based production technology; hence, we must continue to rely on egg-based production.
October and November seems a reasonable target date, with a possibility of some doses being available in September.
More likely than not, it will be a two-dose series, perhaps with adjuvant added as an antigen-sparing measure. It
is not at all clear how this vaccine will be integrated with seasonal vaccine administration.

Integrated anaerobic/aerobic biological treatment for intensive swine production

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Nowadays, manure treatment demand is increasing due to N
surplus in most of the European areas. De-localization of piggery farms to less concentrated areas, for full fertilizing nutrient recovering
by land spreading, is very difficult for several reasons: the
presence in the same areas of traditional crops and typical productions,
like in Italy the parmesan cheese, and also for other reasons
related to food quality and safety market strategies. One possible
solution is to export manure nutrients to less concentrated areas.
Therefore, technologies for manure valorisation and volume reduction
are needed. Solid/liquid separation of raw manure is a key
technology, since it can concentrate a high quantity of nutrients
in a small volume, making transportation off-farm easier and
cheaper. The remaining liquid fraction could be used on-farm as
fertilizer. Rather often, especially for large, intensive swine farms,
N surplus still remains after soli/liquid separation, therefore many
farmers will benefit with further treatment to reduce nitrogen
load. C/N ratio represents the main treatment bottle neck. Better
electron donors use is needed, therefore solid–liquid separation
as pre-treatment allows a more balanced C/N ratio in liquid fraction.
Among the available biological technologies, SBRs showed
the most promising performances. According to lab-scale as well
as full scale results, SBR allows up to 98% removal of COD, N and
P, and moreover it’s easy to be managed and controlled. Thus,
the proposed process can represent a new chance for solving environmental
problems generated by large industrial piggeries. Economic
evaluations indicated that the operative costs are
affordable by most pig farmers, with minor impact on meat price.
Electric energy costs, that represent the biggest cost item, can be
greatly reduced if the separated solids are anaerobically digested
for cogeneration. Co-digestion with energy crops and/or organic
wastes can even increase the profitability of the process. For these
reasons, in Italy, several integrated anaerobic/aerobic biological
treatment for intensive swine production are going to be constructed
and revamped in the near future.

Comparison of production traits between pigs with and without the Escherichia coli F4 receptors in a White Duroc x Erhualian intercross F2 population

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To evaluate the influence of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) F4 receptors on production traits in pigs, ETEC F4ab, F4ac, and F4ad adhesion phenotypes and 27 traits related to growth, carcass, meat quality, and length of the small intestine in a White Duroc × Erhualian intercross population were measured.

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