EMERGING SWINE PRODUCTION DISEASES – AN INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE AND ACTION

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on May 11, 2017 | No Comments

The swine industry has experienced major emerging swine production diseases, including outbreaks from Influenza A Virus – swine, Porcine Circovirus and Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV), within the last 10 to 15 years. The challenges to herd health, animal welfare and food security are costly for both producer and consumer. Developing and implementing a plan to respond to emerging and re-emerging diseases of significance is top priority. The major swine organizations within the United States, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV), the National Pork Board (NPB), the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and Swine Health Information Center (SHIC), have worked together to develop a plan to address emerging disease.

INDSUTRY IDENTIFICATION AND RESPONSE TO EMERGING DISEASES

• Identification of Disease Threats
  • In 2015, the National Pork Board allocated funding for the development of the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) for this purpose.
• Research
  • The research focus of the Pork Board has been on diseases that are or have become endemic within the United States but also focus on specific Foreign Animal Diseases.
• Response
  • The USDA is also finalizing an Emerging Disease Response Plan to address the many emerging diseases appearing in United States livestock production. USDA has formalized response plans for OIE listed foreign animal diseases and for other domestically regulated
    diseases (Pseudorabies and Swine Brucellosis) but no such plan has been available for
    emerging diseases.

REDUCING ANTIMICROBIALS POST-WEANING

Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on May 10, 2017 | No Comments

Antibiotics need to be used judiciously. If antibiotics are used when they are not needed, or in a way that provides no benefit, it is a waste of money. Reducing antimicrobial use may help to reduce production costs. In addition, antimicrobial resistance is an emerging problem on pig farms and the over use of antimicrobials does create selective pressure which promotes the increased prevalence of resistant pathogens making treatment of sick animals more difficult. Treatment of animals without a good response due to resistance causes economic loss because of reduced pig performance but also the expense associated with medication. Judicious use does not mean that antibiotics should never be used. Failure to treat conditions that can be readily cured with appropriate antibiotic use results in economic loss and reduced animal welfare.

The hardest problems with measuring antibiotic use are;

1. What unit do you use to describe antibiotic use?

2. How do you compare the use of one antibiotic with the use of a different antibiotic because there is a huge difference in the relative importance between certain antibiotics?

3. How do you persuade anyone to keep accurate records of their antibiotic use?

Treatment record-keeping will need to become routine and we will need to begin to create a standardized method of comparing drug use between farms such as calculating animal daily doses so that antibiotic use can be discussed in the same way as pigs/sow/year.

BATCH FARROWING: 10 YEARS LATER

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WHAT DOES BATCH FARROWING MEAN?

First we need to know what a batch farrowing system is – taking one week’s production and compiling it into a multi-week system. It can range from a 2 week cycle to a 4 or 5 week cycle. Instead of breeding and weaning every week, you do it once every 2 weeks or whatever length works for your operation, depending on labour availability, desired nursery group size, and target weaning age. The 2 week batch will give you 10 continuous groups in the sow barn or 26 groups per year.

ADVANTAGES TO A BATCH SYSTEM

• Larger and more uniform weaner group sizes

• Feeding the pigs more efficiently

• Defining the jobs amongst employees

• Planning your week out for busier days

• Using your labour more efficiently, when and where you need it

• Easier to plan for holidays and long weekends

RETROFIT FOR LOOSE HOUSING

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There are many factors that affect the success or failure of retrofitting farms to group housing. Properly managed with the right care and attitude, many different forms of group housing can result in performance similar to gestation stalls. However, the challenge lies in the transition period, and making the choices which fit the resources, cost, and staff available on your farm. Due to the inherent unique features that differ between farms, peer-reviewed research alone can never answer all of the questions. Nonetheless, the transition to group-housing offers an opportunity to apply a focus on stockmanship in your herd. Future opportunities exist to reduce feed costs, minimize aggression and increase performance of group-housed sows through utilization of new technologies and pig production strategies.

This article discusses

• Common group housing questions
  • Is retrofitting the most cost-effective investment long-term?
  • When is the best time to mix sows into groups?
  • When is the best time to mix sows into groups?
  • Static or dynamic grouping?
  • How many sows per pen?
• Pen structure and design
  • Flooring type
  • Waterers
  • Nesting walls and gating material
  • Lighting
  • Hospital Pens
  • Cost of retrofitting existing facilities
• Managing people and pigs in the transition
  • Planning the process
  • Stockmanship
  • Old sows
• Feeding strategies for group housing success
  • Optimization of sow body condition
  • Gestation diet
  • Common mistakes

REVISITING THE BASICS OF BREEDING

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With traditional, intracervical artificial insemination (AI), 2 to 3 inseminations/estrus period are performed with each AI requiring 3 to 5 minutes. Individual AI doses contain 1.5 to 3 billion sperm cells in a volume of 70 to 85 mL. However, a significant proportion of sows in estrus on commercial farms are now bred 2 to 3 times using post-cervical AI (PCAI) with each AI dose containing approximately 50% of the sperm cells and volume that doses contained previously. With PCAI, semen is deposited just inside the uterus, requiring 10 to 15 seconds.

Regardless of whether intracervical AI or PCAI is employed, proper timing of inseminations is a prerequisite for high farrowing rates and large litter sizes. Reproductive performance in sows is greatest when semen is deposited 0 to 24 hours before ovulation (Soede et al., 1995)

PROPER DETECTION OF ESTRUS IS KEY FOR REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS

• The ability to accurately detect estrus, particularly in gilts, is perhaps the most important factor impacting reproductive performance and longevity on sow farms
• Having a designated person for detecting estrus and breeding gilts has been listed as a key factor in wether or not sows are high or low longevity
• Estrus can only be confirmed, by display of the lordosis or immobilization response
• Daily boar exposure (10 to 15 minutes) commenced at 160 days of age, gilts given direct contact with a boar after movement to an estrus detection pen were significantly younger at first estrus (180.9 days of age) compared with gilts given fence-line contact only (191.9 days of age),
• Age of boars used to detect estrus is important, beginning at approximately 10 months of age.

SINGLE, FIXED TIME ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION

A new product called OvuGel is labelled for inducing ovulation in weaned sows by stimulating the release of luteinizing hormone. Sows receive intravaginal treatment with OvuGel 96 hours post-weaning, and ovulation occurs 40 to 48 hours after treatment (Knox et al., 2014). Thus, when using OvuGel, a single fixed time AI (FTAI) can be performed approximately 24 hours after treatment. In theory, sows can be bred without regard to estrus.

• In order for OvuGel to be effective at inducing ovulation, treated animals must have an available crop of mature ovarian follicles.
• P.G. 600, has been demonstrated to accelerate the onset of follicular growth, estrus and ovulation in sows weaned during the summer (Bates et al., ).
• After first mating, a greater proportion of control sows (24.8%), compared to P.G. 600-treated sows (12.0%) returned to estrus.

THE ISSUE OF PRE-WEANING MORTALITY

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Pre-weaning mortality is a complex subject, as there are many factors that often lead to the final demise of the piglet. For example, “crushing” is often recorded to be the cause of death, but the piglet could have been chilled, causing it to lay beside the dam for warmth, which led to the piglet being laid on. Farms that have good management practices, to reduce the influence of environment and health on the sow and piglet, are usually able to accomplish what would be considered very low levels of pre-weaning mortality. In other complicated cases, getting mortality down to targets of less than 10% can be quite challenging and frustrating.

3 major factors were discussed regarding PWM.

1. Animal Factors

• Piglet
  • Birth weight
  • Colostrum intake within 6-8 hours
  • Fostering of piglets to reduce PWM
• Sow
  • Sows that farrow in the gestation barn are a huge cause of profit loss and reinforce the need for good record keeping and stockmanship
  • Sow nutrition prior to and during lactation
  • A sow’s rectal temperature will increase immediately prior to and after parturition, but if it continues to be elevated for more than 24 hours, this would be abnormal

2. Environmental factors

• Heat lamps have been shown to be superior to heat pads, however any source, is preferable to no heat source.
• All in all out is superior over continuous flow in terms of PWM
• Sanitation of farrowing rooms should be performed between every batch.
  • Allow to dry for as long as possible
• Washing of sows prior to farrowing has been shown to have a significant impact on PWM
• Vaccination programs should be reviewed on a regular basis
  • Feed-back for scour management

3. Human factors

• Significant decrease in PWM if sows are farrowing while there are competent staff present

MASTERING BREEDING IN AN ERA OF NEW TECHNOLOGY

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A number of new artificial insemination (AI) technologies have recently become available to swine producers, such as post-cervical AI (PCAI) and fixed-time AI (FTAI). With PCAI, semen is deposited just inside the uterus, requiring fewer sperm cells, and less time for breeding, than traditional intracervical AI. A new product released for commercial use in weaned sows (OvuGel; JBS United Animal Health, Sheridan, IN, USA) induces ovulation. The compound is administered 96 hours post-weaning, and a single, FTAI is performed approximately 22 hours later. Thus, the number of semen doses used for AI is decreased and labour associated with detection of estrus can be eliminated. Acceptable fertility outcomes from PCAI and FTAI have been demonstrated in large scale studies under commercial conditions. Meanwhile, advances have been made in the cryopreservation of boar sperm cells and use of frozen semen, perhaps in conjunction with PCAI and/or FTAI.

These new and exciting reproductive technologies are becoming available to commercial pork producers and offer great potential for dramatically increasing reproductive efficiency. For this potential to be realized, however, breeding females must be selected and managed to exhibit a high level of lifetime productivity. New production systems and management protocols are a wise investment and the improved breeding herd performance that results is illustrated by work reported by Patterson et al. (2016) and Foxcroft and Patterson (2016). Various benchmarks of excellent gilt performance exist, such as first service farrowing rates of > 80% and litter sizes of > 12.5 total born pigs.

Precision nutrition can significantly reduce feed cost by improving nutrient efficiency and reducing N and P excretion

Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Production, Uncategorized by admin on May 9, 2017 | No Comments

Precision feeding systems address some of the key issues in today’s intensive livestock farming which are as follows.

1. Reducing feeding costs by improving feed and nutrient efficiency
2. Improving production system sustainability by increasing profitability and reducing production footprints
3. Increasing food safety through traceability
4. Improving animal health by the automatic monitoring of individual animals and the responsible use of antibiotics

Essential elements of precision livestock feeding systems include.

• Precise evaluation of the nutritional potential of feed ingredients
• Precise determination of nutrient requirements
• Formulation of balanced diets that limit the amount of excess nutrients
• Concomitant adjustment of the dietary supply and concentration of nutrients to match the evaluated requirements of each pig in the heard

For the purpose of enhancing the Canadian markets sustainability and competitiveness  precision livestock feeding systems are developed to do as follows.

1. Feeding pigs within a herd according to their individual daily nutrient requirements which:
   1. Reduces feed cost
   2. Reduces feed fabrication, storage, management and shipping costs
   3. Reduces nitrogen, phosphorus and other polluting manure constituents
2. Managing feeds and animals by advanced computerized technology to:
   1. Allow real time off farm monitoring of feeds and animals for optimal slaughter and production strategies
   2. Reduce labour requirements and costs
   3. Allows early detection of diseases and precise application of treatments causing  improved herd performance
3. Allows easy application of optimal production strategies with each herd to:
   1. Automatically manage individual feed supply and composition
   2. Facilitate the evaluation of new feeds and feed sub products
   3. facilitate the determination of nutrient requirements

Precision nutrition can significantly reduce feed cost by improving nutrient efficiency and reducing N and P excretion

Designing precision livestock farming to support a future of sustainable pig production

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A key question now is how farmers can  can manage their ever growing production systems to achieve high quality, sustainable and safe meat production that can meet this demand.  Recent studies have indicated that achieving scale dependent  benefits in agriculture requires new production technologies. A key challenge facing farmers is how monitoring the health and well being of the animals changes with increasing farm size. Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is a modern approach to farm livestock production using technologies for automatic monitoring and control of processes typically done manually in the past. Continuous, fully automated monitoring and improvement of animal health, welfare, productivity and the environmental impact become a reality by applying this technology.

Designing precision livestock farming to support a future of sustainable pig production

Batch Farrowing

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Advantages

• Better control of the effect of certain pathogens in farrowing, nursery and finisher
• Less medication cost in the wean to finish period
• Potential for improved daily gain, feed conversion and reduced mortality rates

Disadvantages

• Less flexible breeding targets
• Management of fall behind piglets
• Staff difficulties of implementation and execution

Batch Farrowing