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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:
Enhancement of Litter Size in Commercial Swine
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on July 31, 2013 | No Comments
Prenatal mortality is a significant concern in commercial swine.
Mechanisms for this loss are not clearly defined but previous
research linked poor blood supply to the developing fetuses as a
leading cause. We conducted a trial utilizing biologic derived from
bacteria and assessed its effects on overall litter size and postnatal
health in swine.
Identifying the Cause of Death of Hogs that Perish In-Transit: A Pilot Project at Two Ontario Packing Plants
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Market hog shipping mortalities are commonly assumed to be due
to heat exhaustion or stress although the actual cause of death
is seldom identified. Determining the cause of death and the
associated risk factors is important if we are to reduce in-transit
losses. To accomplish this, hogs that died in transit to two federally
inspected slaughter plants in Ontario were necropsied to determine
the cause of death.
Effect of Rubber Flooring and Social Grouping on the Utilisation of Free Space for Sows in Walk-in/lock-in Stalls
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Walk-in/lock-in stalls (also known as free access stalls) are a
group housing system that provides sows with individual feeding
protection, with the ability for sows to also freely enter or leave
the stalls to loaf in a communal “free space” area. Walk-in/lock-in
stalls are a very flexible system that is relatively easy to manage
compared to other group housing systems, but a common finding
is that many sows tend to remain in the stalls, and thus do not gain
the benefits associated with group housing. This study investigated
whether the addition of rubber mats to the free space area of two
pen configurations would increase the amount of time that sows
spend in this area. A second objective of the study was to examine
the effects of grouping high and low parity sows separately, to
determine if this would result in the increased use of the free space
area by younger, lower parity sows. Results show that in the I-pen
configuration, both ‘young’ and ‘old’ sow groups spent significantly
more time in the areas with rubber flooring than concrete flooring
(P<0.05), while in the T-pens, only the young group increased their
use of the free space area when rubber flooring was applied. Sow
body posture on the rubber flooring indicated an increase in sow
comfort, with a greater amount of lateral lying observed.
Early Detection and Interventions for Reducing Lameness in Gestating Sows
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Lameness in sows is a painful condition that can affect fertility,
mobility, feed intake and culling rate. Methods for the early
detection and prevention of lameness have not been studied
extensively, but if effective, such measures could improve overall
herd health, welfare and the productivity of sows. Poor hoof
condition is increasingly believed to be a contributing factor to
lameness development.
The objective of this study was to, i) conduct a survey to assess the
prevalence of lameness and hoof condition in a large commercial
sow herd, ii) assess the effectiveness of preventative hoof trimming
on reducing the occurrence and severity of lameness, and iii) assess
the effectiveness of an early intervention treatment, including
analgesics, provision of rubber stall matting to aid recovery and
a corrective hoof trim, at reducing the prevalence and severity of
lameness.
Results to date show that from a survey of 3,286 sows (55% of
the herd), almost 60% of sows showed signs of lameness in at
least one leg, and a large percentage of sows had multiple hoof
lesions. Although the completion of objectives ii and iii is ongoing,
preliminary data suggest that preventative hoof trimming reduces
the occurrence and severity of lameness in gestation. The results so
far indicate that true prevalence of lameness on farms is likely to be
underestimated.
Investigation of Translactational Analgesia for Reducing Piglet Pain at Castration
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Public concern regarding painful livestock procedures such as
castration is increasing. Piglet castration has been criticized, largely
because pain medication is not commonly used. The cost and time
required to administer analgesics to individual piglets are the main
deterrents to the swine industry adopting this practice. Having
an affordable and practical method of delivering pain medication
would likely increase the use of pain medication by producers, and
increase the acceptance of this procedure.
The objective of this study was to determine if pain medication can
be transferred to the piglet through the sow’s milk, and if so, to
determine how effective this technique is for reducing acute pain
at the time of castration, and for reducing pain and inflammation
after surgery. A novel technique for measuring pain in piglets using
a handling chute was also developed.
Results showed that the transfer of the analgesic, Metacam®,
to piglets via the sow’s milk was not eff ective, as the maximum
concentration of analgesic in piglet blood (up to 5 hours after
injection of the sow) was less than 1/200th of that found in sow’s
blood, and 1/80th of that found in milk. Thus, the concentration
of analgesic transferred to piglets via milk was too low to provide
effective pain relief. Modification of the drug could result in
increased transfer to piglets. Work is ongoing to validate the use of
the handling chute for measurement of castration pain in piglets.
Temperament Traits Related to Stress and Meat Quality: Are they Reliable and Heritable?
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This project evaluated different behavioural tests for their ability
to accurately determine temperament traits related to the stress
response of pigs, and determine: whether these traits are consistent
within individual pigs over time, and if they are heritable. Results
found evidence that supports the use of simple behavioural tests to
distinguish between temperament traits in pigs.
Correlations between the behavioural responses of gilts measured
at two different time points (12 and 18 weeks of age) were evident
in both the 1st generation and in 2nd generation offspring,
indicating consistency of these traits within individual pigs
over time. Temperament classifications of individual pigs were
also correlated to the concentration of saliva cortisol following
handling and following mixing in 1st generation gilts. The analysis
of temperament heritability is ongoing, with the initial results
suggesting that pigs could be selected for reduced stress response.
Further studies with larger numbers of animals would be needed to
determine the full merit of these tests as a selection tool.
Development of an Air Filtration System for Swine Transport Vehicles to Protect Against Airborne Diseases During Transport
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The overall goal of this project is to protect high-value pigs
during transport using a trailer with an air filtration system. A
comprehensive literature search and a survey of various information
sources on trailer filtration were conducted to identify components
of a trailer air filtration system and the various options available
for each component. Using a set of relevant design criteria, the
different options were evaluated to select the components included
in the prototype design. Presently, the proper components are
being assembled for retrofit into the prototype trailer. Remaining
steps to complete the project include prototype testing, design
optimization, and feasibility analysis.
Evaluation of a Commercial-Scale Air Treatment System
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An air cleaning technology based on biotrickling filtration
developed in previous phases of the project was scaled up and
tested at the PSC swine grower-finisher facility. Results showed
that the air treatment units were effective in reducing the levels
of ammonia, dust, and odour from the airstream at the exhaust of
the grow-finish rooms by about 77%, 92%, and 75%, respectively.
Further work is needed to optimize the operation of these units in
terms of water usage and to assess its year-round performance.
Benchmarking and Standardization of Swine Production Systems
Posted in: Production by admin on July 1, 2013 | No Comments
Previous work have shown that even though the ultimate goal of
a swine production operation is to raise hogs in the best possible
manner, there is a wide variation in the different operational
systems in place in swine facilities across the industry, leading
to variability in performance, efficiencies, production costs,
and overall productivity. The overall goal of the project was to
evaluate the current performance of various operational systems
in swine production to determine whether standardization and
optimization can improve efficiencies and overall productivity.
From the work conducted in this project, 14 key areas of swine
barn design and management were identified by pork producers
and other stakeholders as areas that could potentially benefit from
standardization and optimization efforts.
Estimating real-time individual amino acid requirements in growingfinishing pigs: towards a new definition of nutrient requirements in growing-finishing pigs?
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on June 26, 2013 | No Comments
Precision feeding reduces costs, increases sustainability, and may improve traceability. In young pigs, feed intake increases exceeds nutrient requirement increases, and it is beneficial to use a high nutrient diet. Later, nutrient requirement is less and grower pigs can be fed a less nutrient dense diet. The use of multi-phase diets is already well established, but it does not address individual variation within a production stage. The nutritional requirement of an individual is hard to determine due to the normal (curvilinear) distribution of nutrient requirement in a population, so a new method was designed in this study. The “grey-box” method is based on individual body weight, growth, and feed intake patterns. After creating a mathematical model, calibration trials were run. The first calibration trial was to determine individual lysine requirements, and the second trial validated the mechanistic component. Validation trials were then run, and showed the determined lysine requirement was accurate and nitrogen loss reduced. Using the system designed, it was calculated 8% on feed costs was saved, and that it could provide a more sustainable farming technique.