Spring Producer Meetings

Posted in: Production by admin on March 17, 2015 | No Comments

Wednesday, April 22

Niverville, Manitoba

Niverville Heritage Centre, 100 Heritage Trail

Time: 9:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Thursday, April 23

Portage La Prairie, Manitoba

Canad Inns, 2401 Saskatchewan Avenue

Time: 11:30 a.m. – 4:15 p.m.

PROGRAM

To register for this seminar, please contact Abel Lopez, Elanco Animal Health

Phone: (306) 280-0240

E-Mail: Lopez_abel@elanco.com

Impact of Methods of Synchronizing Gilt Breeding on Sow Longevity

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on June 13, 2014 | No Comments

The method and results for a project looking at the effect of hormone induction of puberty in gilts on longevity and performance. Half of the gilts were injected with PG600® at 153 days of age, and half were left as controls. Gilts were bred, weaned, and some were reassigned as nurse sows. After 1 or 2 weanings, sows were randomly assigned for another treatment of PG600®. The results show the first treatment group of PG600® had larger litters, but the same number weaned between groups. PG600® increased the percent of sows bred within 8 days of weaning from 66% to 85%. As well, nurse sows had larger next litters, and an increased percent bred within 8 days of the second weaning.

Spotting Problems Early

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on March 27, 2014 | No Comments

All-in all-out management allows for better sanitation and age separation, which reduces pathogen spread and allows for easier data collection for benchmarking. By using online databases, data from different producers and areas can be evaluated, which allows for a more comprehensive view of the data. One of the useful variables to measure is water consumption, as it can be measured automatically and a sudden change can indicate a problem. Noise monitoring can also be measured to detect diseases like influenza. Electronic collection, storage, and analysis of data like these can be used to develop precision agriculture.

Water Sprinkling Market Pigs in a Stationary Trailer Pre- and Post-Transport: Effects on Pig Behaviour, Gastrointestinal Tract Temperature and Trailer Micro-Climate

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Pigs are susceptible to heat stress, so transporting in extreme conditions can lead to increased incidences and increased mortality. Water sprinkling is used in barns to reduce body temperature, and it could potentially work within a trailer as well. This study examined the effect of water sprinkling on behaviour, internal temperature, physiological changes, and meat quality. The microclimate of the trailer was also recorded. The results show sprinklers reduced the temperature increase and humidity decrease in the trailer, and had no effect on ammonia levels. During lairage, pigs with sprinklers had fewer drinking bouts and spent more time lying. All pigs experienced an increase in gastrointestinal temperature, but it appears to be more related to exercise than external temperature. However, pigs with sprinklers had a greater reduction in internal temperature at arrival. Overall, sprinkling gave some improvement in body temperature, and results could possibly be more significant with the use of active ventilation as well.

Sudden Death during Transport: How Hog Heart Health Affects In-Transit Losses

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The cause of in-transit deaths in hogs is rarely examined, but a previous study identified that many of the hogs had heart lesions causing heart failure. When in-transit loss (ITL) hearts were compared to non-ITL hearts it was found ITL had a heavier average weight, visible enlargement was more common, and both groups had chronic, microscopic lesions in 76% of hearts. Genetic sequencing found 40 possible genes associated with the lesions, two of which are known to cause HCM in humans. Pig hearts are relatively small, so they have little ability to overcome challenges. Therefore, abnormalities can cause heart failure when heart rate is elevated. More extensive studies and genetic sequencing should be performed to determine how closely related pig heart lesions are related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in other species.

Managing Pile Ups

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Pile ups can occur in facilities due to increased prolificacy in sows creating an excess of weaned pigs, or the increased market weight of grow-finish pigs requiring extra space. Some of the management strategies used to avoid pile ups are reducing fill to fill intervals, disrupting all-in all-out flow, or increasing stocking density. All of these create problems of their own, so alternative strategies or ways to effectively use the previous strategies are needed. Some of the important aspects are to focus on nursery management, sorting by size in the nursery, feeding a diet based on size, and running trials to find the most effective strategies.

Managing Pile Ups

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Sow reproductive performance has been improving, and now hyperprolific sows can wean 30 pigs per year. Problems with hyperprolific sows are providing space for the increased number of pigs produced, and making sure weaned pigs are still good quality. Agri-Marché has 150 farms to raise pigs, either  from their own sows or bought as nursery pigs from other suppliers. In the past, raising nursery pigs from mixed sources was common practice, but the increased awareness of disease spread has reduced that practice. Agri-Marché’s farrowing barns were increasing the number of pigs produced, but as quality of these pigs started to decline the focus shifted to producing better pigs that will not lose money in finishing. Agri-Marché transitioned some of their barns to nursery facilities and created breeding facilities to supply pregnant gilts. Management technology has allowed for more complicated pig transportation routes to keep nursery, finishing, or wean-to-finish units nearly full.

Health Monitoring Matters: the Role of CSHIN

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The Canadian Swine Health Intelligence Network is a swine health surveillance system that provides real time health information to producers and veterinarians. Surveillance involves tracking changes in health, updating disease knowledge, and communication of this information to improve decisions. Active (testing) and passive (reporting) detection methods are used by government or industry personnel to track listed and emerging diseases. In 2011 CSHIN ran an analysis to identify surveillance gaps, and the recommendation was to adopt a three-network system. The three networks are a swine veterinarian communication network, an anonymous data collection and analysis network, and a centralized laboratory data network. The benefits of the CSHIN networks are that they can detect outbreaks early on, provide a response infrastructure, provide information on the situation, improve communication, provide health information for trade contracts, can prove disease-free status, and can prevent disease-related trade blocks. The CSHin networks increase communication and knowledge of diseases in Canadian herds, allowing for faster, more accurate responses to disease outbreaks.

Standard Operation Procedure Split-Suckling

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Split suckling can be used to make sure all pigs consume colostrum. This SOP goes over the materials, preparation, and clean-up involved with using split-suckling.

Making the Most of the Suckling Period

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Standard Operating Procedure Briefings (SOPB) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) can help inform employees why something is done and how to do it. The SOPB reviews literature on management practises and communicates clearly the benefits and risks or negatives of a certain practise, and it can be used to help employees have a wider overview of the procedure. The SOP is a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to perform a practise. This is especially useful for training employees, but can be used as a reference by all employees if questions arise. Having a SOPB and SOP for new born pigs can help employees provide high quality care, and make management decisions.