The Heat is On: Truck Wash System Dissolves Disease
The greatest vector for disease transfer in the swine sector is trucks. Cleaning trucks is expensive and labour intensive and is still a biosecurity hazard. A vacuum system prototype is being evolved to help vacuum contaminants from the truck. Along with this, heating the truck...
Validating Net Energy of Wheat DDGS
Feed prices are continuing to increase, so novel ingredients are being examined for their potential in swine diets. Wheat DDGS is becoming increasingly available in the Prairies and can be implemented in diets in a step-up inclusion strategy up to 15% and 30% in nursery...
The Next Game Changer in Feeding Pigs
A precision feeding system can help reduce costs by improving the efficiency of nutrients and feed, while also using traceability to enhance food safety and decreasing the environmental footprint by reducing feed waste. Phase feeding is the alternative and it meets the nutrient requirements of...
Mycotoxins and the Immune System
Mycotoxins are produced by mould that grows on grains and are toxic and cause diverse effects to livestock. Dilution and feed additives can be used to try to mitigate the effects but their effectiveness is not clear and it increases costs. One of the many...
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. Transportation is the largest source...
Efficacy of Feed Additives
Fusarium mould can often contaminate grains and can produce different mycotoxins including deoxynivalenol (DON). DON has negative effects in pigs when given more than 1 ppm in their feed. Feed additives are available to help reduce the effects of DON, but their effectiveness is still...
Effectively Reducing Odours
Reducing odours can help reduce possible environmental impacts and improve how acceptable they are to be near rural communities. Air cleaning technology was developed to reduce odour from the exhaust air from swine facilities. A bio-trickling air treatment unit was designed; it is smaller than...
Managing Mycotoxins Differently
Grain contaminated with fusarium mould is at a higher prevalence when the conditions are humid. A mycotoxin that can be produced from fusarium mould in cereal grains is deoxynivalenol. Pigs are very sensitive to this mycotoxin, with only 1 ppm guideline for ingestion. Often multiple...
Effectiveness of Sprinkling During Transport
When air temperatures exceed 20 °C outside, pig comfort and meat quality can be improved during transport by sprinkling pigs before transport and unloading. Mortality of pigs during transport increases when it is hot outside and there are no regulations for cooling the pigs down....
Welfare Assessment Systems: What are the Differences
Food quality not includes the environmental impact, local economy, health, safety along with nutritional value, so animal welfare is increasingly becoming and important attribute to food quality. Various standards for welfare have been developed and a third party is needed to make sure that they...