Pork Insight Articles

 Industry Partners


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:



Author(s): R. Desrosiers
Publication Date: June 10, 2013
Reference: Advances in Pork Production, Volume 24, 2013
Country: Canada

Summary:

Whether or not livestock antibiotic use contributes to bacterial resistance in human pathogens is debatable, but it does create resistance in livestock pathogens and its use is negatively viewed by the public. Current antibiotic use in Canada is not well recorded (at least in mg/kg of pig produced), but Denmark and the Netherlands have recorded and reduced their use. Denmark no longer uses antimicrobials for growth performance, and has a system in place for encouraging the reduction in use for therapeutics as well. The Netherlands is working on reducing their use by requiring the record of use to be available to the public, and possibly restricting veterinarian right to sell the drugs if the goal is not met. There are many ways to reduce the use of antibiotics as therapeutics: one obvious way is to increase the health of the herd, for example creating clean herds with strong biosecurity. Management can have an effect because smaller barns with an all-in all-out system will reduce the chance of a pathogen cycling through repeatedly. However, some environments may be more susceptible to spreading certain pathogens, even when all other conditions are the same. Increasing weaning age will decrease the chance of enteric diseases post-weaning, and alternative ingredients in feed or water can reduce certain disease occurrences. If antibiotics are used year round, it may be possible to reduce the use to only the high season for the target disease. Selection for higher health breeding animals can reduce use, as can separating males and females – as females tend to be healthier and require less drug use. Separating parities can also help, and treating individuals or pens instead of entire herds. Vaccines will provide a major reduction in antibiotic use needed, as can increased biosecurity, lowering doses, and phase treatments. When antibiotics are still necessary, it is important to use the lowest priority in order to reserve high priority for when it is truly needed.

Download PDF »

 
 
Slots Master There is no definite strategy or technique that you can use as you play slots