Genomics and Swine Health: The Next Steps -Banff 2016

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A new research project hopes to provide novel strategies for reducing disease impacts by applying genomic technologies to develop and optimize selection strategies for resilient pigs. They hope to determine the optimal gut microbiome associated with health and appropriate immune response. At all stages, this project will collect a large number of samples for genomic analysis to determine the gene profile and gene expression that are associated with the disease resilience in pigs. Ultimately, researchers hope to improve the end-user’s ability to select, feed and use microbial management tools for the optimal immune response of pigs.

Genomics and Swine Health The Next Steps -Banff 2016

Genomics and Swine Health -Banff 2016

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The Genome Canada project was launched in 2010. Its goal was to identify genetic markers associated with animals performing well when exposed to disease in order to improve swine health.

Researchers aimed to provide new diagnostic tools for selecting pigs that are genetically less susceptible to PRRS and PCVAD. They found several phenotypic factors and immune response mediators associated with viremia, weight gain and fetal outcomes, as well as litter size and reproductive performance. Consistent results within disease models were found, however the results appear to be disease specific.

Certain pigs were found to be disease resilient, being able to maintain their performance despite being infected. How pigs react to disease can be identified in a blood sample and used to select for resilience. The next generation of studies will seek to establish whether developing more resilient pigs is possible.

Genomics and Swine Health -Banff 2016

Key Indicators of Breeding Herd Productivity -Banff 2016

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11 production numbers that are most critical to monitoring and improving production:
• Pigs weaned/mated female/year
• Total born/mated female/year
• Litters/mated female/year
• Farrowing rate %
• Wean to first service interval
• Female death loss
• Piglet survival (100% – (stillborn % + pre-weaning mortality))
• Total born/females farrowed (P1+ P2 + P3)
• Gilt farrowing rate %
• Total born/females farrowed (P1)
• Retention (P1 + P2 + P3) culls & death loss

If a farm was at 100% in each of Ketchem’s 11 key indicators, they would be producing 36+ pigs weaned/mated female/year. To do that, you need caring, trained people, strong gilt development, detailed breeding of females and farrowing methods to save more of the extra pigs being born. This article outlines key factors regarding these statistics and how to improve them.

Key Indicators of Breeding Herd Productivity -Banff 2016

Achieving High Productivity in Group Housed Sows -Banff 2016

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on May 3, 2017 | No Comments

Problems associated with group housing and how to confront them:

Inaccurate feeding: Meeting the needs of individual sows dietary requirements is challenging in a group housing system but using and electronic sow feeder system producers can closely monitor weights and provide tailored specific rations for their sows.

Social stress: Sows can remember pecking orders of up to 100 pigs so maintaining a group larger than that alleviates some of the stress and energy that goes into maintaining a dominance hierarchy. Making it difficult for sows to go from the front of the ESF to the back by introducing a raceway system prevents sows from rushing each other out to access the remains of the last pig. As does keeping the number of sows per ESF on the lower end of the range around 45. As for space allotment Coleman found that 23-24 square feet per sow was a happy medium that worked for both the producer and the animals.

Training difficulties: Training sows on the ESF system earlier seemed to mitigate stress and confusion, starting at ten weeks of age versus starting at heat detection which is currently standard practice.

Achieving High Productivity in Group Housed Sows -Banff 2016

Biosecurity and Disease Risk Management in Transportation, Steve’s Livestock Transport -Banff 2016

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Steve’s Livestock Transport has been transporting pigs for 29 years and now averages 150,000 pigs per week, building their first truck washing facilities in 1995. Since then, they have added 3 more locations and improved biosecurity measures, including undercarriage washing and Canada’s first industrial-strength baking bays for livestock trailers.

Running a clean and secure trip involves several factors.

Drivers: Must not live on premises where pigs are kept nor work at any hog facility, and pets are not allowed in their trucks. Drivers must also undergo rigorous training including livestock handling and biosecurity protocols.

Trailers: Made and ordered to maximize biosecurity and ease of washing by preventing manure from entering crevices.

Yard biosecurity: All livestock, bedding and manure must be removed from a truck before it can enter any Steve’s Livestock location, including wash bays. Clean and dirty trailers are kept apart via separate parking and loading areas, and trucks must be clean before leaving the yard.

On-farm biosecurity: Drivers make boarding changes to the truck’s exterior before dressing to work inside. Never go beyond the trailer when loading or enter the barn to do their paperwork. Pigs that fall to the ground are never placed back in the trailer and chase boards are used inside the trailer to prevent pigs from returning to the barn.

Biosecurity during transport: Drivers must be aware of other livestock trailers on the road and may need to follow predetermined routes if stipulated by the customer or logistics coordinator. GPS software shows which routes trucks have taken at any given time.

Wash bays: All washers cannot live on premises where pigs are kept. Suits and boots are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected after each wash, as are the floors in the staff room and common areas. Wash bays also feature a one way drive-through and sloped floors. Fresh air is continuously flowed through to prevent fog build up.

Drying bays: After washing, trailers are backed into mechanical dry bays against a bank of aeration fans, where the air is heated to about 35 degrees Celsius.

Baking bays: Kill viruses and bacteria. If requested, a trailer can be parked in the bay at an ambient temperatureof 71-77 degrees for at least 10 minutes.

Biosecurity and Disease Risk Management in Transportation, Steve’s Livestock Transport -Banff 2016

Gilt Development Setting up the Breeding Herd -Banff 2016

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Dr. Rob Knox goes over some of the key factors regarding proper gilt development.

Health:

New animals pose the greatest risk of disease introduction, limiting gilt entry frequency, health testing the source herd, biosecurity and sufficient time for isolation and acclimation can prevent bringing new diseases to your barn.

Selection:

Selection for longevity leads to greater fertility, immune status and mothering ability.

Housing and environment:

Relevant factors may include animal space, number per pen, type of feeding system, lighting, temperature, air quality, housing system, season and climate. Studies suggest that controlling group size and floor space at certain times may improve lifetime fertility.

Diet and feeding for growth and development:

Limiting growth by restricting feed access may be needed to avoid gilts being far above the desired weight and condition at time of breeding and farrowing. It appears that energy restriction in late development is needed for fast growing gilts and, if applied properly, should have few long term consequences.

Puberty induction:

Factors affecting the response of gilts to boar exposure include age at start of exposure, regrouping and boar-to-gilt ratio. In general, exposure will induce 70-90% of gilts within a specific period of time.

Gilt Development Setting up the Breeding Herd -Banff 2016

Brazilian Pork Production Challenges and Opportunities -Banff 2016

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From 1960 to 2013 meat production of beef, chicken and pork in Brazil has risen by 1,363 percent.

Traceability is seen as a competitive requirement and is mandatory for the companies handling and processing food products. This is essential because of the direct link to risk, the traceability system “must be able to connect all the links in the chain with the ability to trace back from consumer to farmer,” says Cinara Milanez Shibuya Batista.

Management of disease outbreaks is of significant importance in Brazil. The country has a national swine health program to control, notify and action in cases related to pork production. Because of foot and mouth (FMD) issues in the last few decades in both swine and beef animals, Brazil has yet to regain access to some lost export markets. Because of this Brazil has adopted an extensive biosecurity program and places great importance on transparency and reliability within the system.

The country operates on a closed loop system. Its goals are to ensure better sanitary control, more income stability for the producer and income creation in rural areas.

The new measures appear to be working. In the last 15 years, Brazil has boosted its exports of pork by more than 600 per cent and has increased pork production by 40 per cent primarily in its southern states. This makes Brazil the fourth largest producer and exporter in the world exporting about 500k tonnes and making up about eight per cent of global pork exports.

Brazilian Pork Production Challenges and Opportunities -Banff 2016

Infrared Thermography in the Swine Barn -Banff 2016

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This technology has three main components:

1. Detection of infrared radiation emitted by an object
2. Conversion of infrared radiation to temperature
3. Display of temperature distribution as an image

Cook cited several reasons for using IT to measure heat loss:
• Non-contact
• Automatable
• Non-invasive
• Sensitive to change
• Reflects metabolic activity
• Detects febrile responses
• Behavior can be measured from infrared images

However there are a number of factors can affect IT temperature:

• Reflected environmental infrared radiation
• Imprinted body heat
• Spatial distribution: The more animals that cluster together, the higher the ambient temperature recorded.
• Spatial distribution affects temperature
• Vaccination affects spatial distribution
• Vaccination induces an increase in radiated temperature
• In theory, only one pig needs to exhibit a febrile response to increase the maximum temperature recorded

Infrared Thermography in the Swine Barn -Banff 2016

Alternative Feedstuffs and Feeding Programs for Nursery Pigs -Banff 2016

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Feeding of nursery pigs has two key phases, each with its own focus: immediately post-weaning when the goal is getting pigs to eat, and the subsequent phase when you try to raise the pig’s capacity to eat by maximizing flexibility in feed formulation while maintaining growth performance.

Dietary feedstuffs directly impact feed costs and competitiveness, while functional characteristics of carbohydrates such as starch, fiber and oligosaccharides are critical to value-added attributes like intestine health.

Zijlstra cited some interesting findings here from relevant studies:

• Young pigs fed diets containing less energy and more fiber boasted the greatest feed intake and gain, but with a reduced feed efficiency.
• While increased dietary acid-detergent fiber consistently reduced energy digestibility, effects on feed intake were inconsistent.
• Barley-based diets may provide an advantage over their wheat-based counterparts.
• While pigs have strong preferences for certain feeds and feedstuffs, diets including alternative protein feedstuffs can produce a growth performance comparable to pigs on a soybean meal-based diet.

The article also covers the prebiotic effect  of fiber on nursery pigs, and the inclusion of fermented cereal grain in the feed to produce exopolysaccharide, which may reduce the incidence of diarrhea by providing an alternative target for Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli to adhere to.

Alternative Feedstuffs and Feeding Programs for Nursery Pigs -Banff 2016

Optimizing Feed and Farm Management to Market Conditions -Banff 2016

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Big picture decisions: efficiency vs. throughput
In large part, this choice depends on the state of the market. In bad times, the focus should be on efficiency in three main areas:
1. Managing cash flow through controlling costs, reducing
capital spending, renegotiating rental or expense
agreements or reducing cash dividend removal.
2. Extending or renegotiating loan terms.
3. Liquidating a portion of inventory to pay down debt.

When you’re making money, it’s best to maximize throughput and weights to reap as much profit as possible. In this scenario, market weights and sow inventory increase, as do diets with the inclusion of nutrients or ingredients to enhance growth rate. These changes should be made even at the cost of efficiency and price increases in order to maximize revenue. In leaner times, efficiency is king, as low efficiency animals are removed, market weights are lowered and diet costs are reduced to obtain the lowest feed cost per unit of gain.

Optimizing Feed and Farm Management to Market Conditions -Banff 2016