Better Disease Detection is Nothing to Sneeze At
Pig diseases are costly, reduce performance, lower production and can lead to losses. Serologic testing the antibodies that the animals produce when fighting off an infection can detect which diseases are present. Currently, the serologic test used can only detect...
Addressing Influenza a Shot in the Arm for Industry
Influenza has a large impact on the Canadian swine industry as it mutates quickly resulting in multiple strains. A genomic analysis was completed on 16 strains that were causing outbreaks in Canada. Once one of the viruses was being dealt...
New Tools for Improving Biosecurity
Main sources of contamination that increase biosecurity risks were identified along with practices that may increase the risk of contamination. Packing plant loading docks and farms had the highest level of contamination with trucks increasing microbial transfer risk between areas....
Building Better Bacon: Genomics Tools for Pork Quality
New genomic tools may be able to measure traits like pork quality and other heritable traits. Classical genetic evaluation has previously been used which involves breeding the best of the herd. Genomics is more accurate and can be used in...
Better Pork April 2020
Articles in the April 2020 Better Pork Include: Beyond the Barn: The Pork Sector’s Beef With Protein Labelling, Gut Check: How to Improve Pig Health, Ontario Team Wins Innovation Award Impossible Foods’ created a new Impossible Pork product that is...
Compounding Iron Dextran with NSAIDs for Use in Piglets at Time of Processing
NSAIDs are often given at processing along with iron dextran and it is tempting to given them together to reduce the number of injections to the piglet. Mixing these products is not allowed under the Canadian Assurance program, though it...
Enhancement of Litter Size in Commercial Swine
A large concern in the North American Pork Industry is prenatal mortality. Between gestation days 15-0, 20-30% of coceptuses are lost, with another 10-15% loses between gestation days 50-70. Different techniques to improve litter size have been used such as...
Identifying the Cause of Death of Hogs that Perish In-Transit: A Pilot Project at Two Ontario Packing Plants
The cause of death and associated risk factors for in-transit losses are needed in order to reduce mortalities. It is often assumed that deaths are due to stress or heat exhaustion but the actual cause is not usually identified. Hogs...
Canadian Hog Journal Winter 2020
Articles in the Winter 2020 Canadian Hog Journal Include: Hot Issues: Quality Assurance Brings Value but Who Pays?, Missions to Asia Enhance Value for Canadian Pork, Unity, Resiliency Themes Dominate Alberta Pork 50th Anniversary, Manitoba Pork Producers Honoured for their...
Canadian Hog Journal Fall 2020
Articles in the Fall 2020 Canadian Hog Journal Include: Hot Issues: In Pursuit of Producer-Packer Shared Value, Keeping African Swine Fever out of Canada, Pro-Trucker Rallies Steer Towards Change Meetings between producers and packers took place virtually. Olymel is adding...
Canadian Hog Journal Summer 2020
Articles in the Summer 2020 Canadian Hog Journal Include: Hot Issues: Producer-Packer Tensions Threaten Viability, Tracking COVID-19’s Continued Impact, Governments Work to Curb Farm Trespassing Producers and packers continue to have a lopsided relationship in favour of processing. Loans are...
Canadian Hog Journal Spring 2020
Articles in the Spring 2020 Canadian Hog Journal Include: Hot Issues: Defending the Pork Value Chain During COVID-19, Buying into Biosecurity can be a Burden So far in the recent months of COVID-19, food demand remains unchanged, though losses are...
