Creep feed source: What is effective and what do piglets prefer?
While creep feeding continues to be widely used in swine operations, the effectiveness of creep feeding to improve pre- and post-weaning performance is up for debate. We conducted a study to determine whether provision of creep feed is beneficial and whether this is dependent on...
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Miranda Smit
Assessing the impact of intervention measures for reducing antibiotic use
Previous activity in this study aimed to evaluate the impact of the Raised without Antibiotics (RWA) program on pig production focused on quantifying the overall antibiotics use both in participating RWA and non-RWA barns. Next steps involved the assessment of prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)...
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Miranda Smit
Alternative sanitization measures to control pathogen growth in antibiotic-free production
This project set out to develop and evaluate alternative sanitization and disinfection measures that may be effective for control of potentially antibiotic-resistant pathogens, as well as measures that might prevent or further reduce development of antimicrobial resistance in pig production. Various sanitation technologies identified and screened,...
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Miranda Smit
Modification of the Prototype Air-Filtered Trailer to Enhance Biosecurity and Welfare of Pigs During Transport
The development of a prototype trailer was aimed to address emerging biosecurity risks and enhance animal welfare during transport through the optimization of a current prototype trailer design. Trailer improvements were focused on enhancement of environmental control and data logging systems as well the addition...
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Miranda Smit
Long-term feeding of graded levels of deoxynivalenol in grower-finisher pigs
Mycotoxin-contaminated grains are commonly downgraded for use in livestock feed and, while the best strategy for livestock producers is to avoid feeding mycotoxin-contaminated grain altogether, with the increased incidence and level of contamination this is no longer a viable option. Therefore, strategies that allow the...
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Miranda Smit
Investigation of enhanced sanitization and disinfection measures applicable for antibiotic-free pig production system
This project aims to develop enhanced biosecurity measures that can eliminate or reduce the proliferation of disease-causing pathogens in antibiotic-free pig production as well as in conventional barns for all-inclusive disease prevention. Specifically, this will investigate alternative sanitization and disinfection measures that are effective for...
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Miranda Smit
Identification of risk factors for sow mortality in Canadian herds
Recent years have seen a trend towards increasing sow mortality figures around the world. In order to understand the underlying causes influencing sow mortality and culling on Canadian farms a project is under way to answer these questions using an integrated approach. Specifically by: 1)...
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Miranda Smit
Feed processing to reduce ergot toxicity
Wheat and rye screenings heavily contaminated with ergot (400 to 500 ppm) were subjected to either steam explosion (200 psi) or pelleting to evaluate the impact on toxicity. Total ergot content decreased 40 to 60% with processing, with a greater decrease associated with more drastic...
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Miranda Smit
Evaluation of impact of antibiotic-use reduction measures on the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and pathogen abundance in pig production barns
The goal of this project is to compare the effect of the adoption of a RWA (raised without antibiotics) approach with non-RWA operations on the overall prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and pathogen abundance in pig production facilities. We conducted surveillance of AMR and pathogens...
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Miranda Smit
Effects of long distance transport on the health and welfare of early weaned pigs
During transport, piglets can experience numerous stressors, including feed and water deprivation, handling at loading and unloading, extreme temperatures, vibrations and noise. However, it is not known whether the combined impacts of weaning and transport overlap, are additive, or synergistic. The effects of long duration...
by
Miranda Smit
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