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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:
Managing Pre-Weaning Mortality: Practical tools and protocols to reduce PWM On-farm
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on March 28, 2013 | No Comments
Increases in pre-weaning mortality can cause a large lose of opportunity, and it is important all employees have a united goal of reducing pre-weaning mortality. Sow management before and after farrowing will keep sows at the optimum body condition score, which will result in better litters. At farrowing, drying piglets off and providing sufficient heat sources is essential. Fostering can even out competition, make use of functional teats, and prevent starve-outs. A minimum weight for piglets should be set, as it is pointless to spend time on a piglet which will not be viable once moved to the nursery. Sows care is important as they provide the majority of the piglet care, and keeping her happy and healthy will result in fewer pre-weaning mortalities. Finally, record keeping is needed to track progress and make changes where necessary.
New Applications in Nursery Nutrition and Management: Giving Piglets the Best Possible Start with Practical Management Tips and
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Nursery management, including the necessity of high cost nursery diets, and compensatory growth is debated in multiple papers. This paper argues that the majority of previous studies on compensatory growth lack sensitivity or replications, and that pigs on restricted energy or nutrient diets in nursery remain below the weight of unrestricted pigs. Regardless if compensatory growth occurs, it is still important to optimize health and performance post-weaning. One way is to increase feed intake, or decrease the time until feed intake, for newly weaned pigs. Some ways to stimulate feed intake include providing creep feed, feeding complex, palatable starter diets, providing sufficient feed space and water supply, a weaning room temperature of 28ºC (to start), increased lighting period, and minimizing additional stress. The nutrient levels of a starter diet are less important than the amount eaten, but nutrient utilization can be improved by using digestible ingredients, or additions like phytase. Good nursery management can help optimize future performance, and a proper starter diet is one of the major ways to do so.
Managing Pre-Weaning Mortality
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Sunterra Farms explains how they provide consistently high quality pigs to their nursery, and reduce pre-weaning mortality. Providing consistent numbers starts with servicing consistent numbers of sows each week. This can be managed by using graphs, and predicting which sows and gilts should come into heat the following week. When sows are moved to the farrowing room it is important to have the room set-up at the proper temperature, with no drafts, and preferably dry. During farrowing, drying piglets and assisting sows that need it will reduce mortalities. Cross-fostering will help to even out competition between piglets, and putting smaller piglets together on a second or third parity sow will also allow them to gain antibodies that may not be present in gilts. Putting 14 piglets on gilts and first parities will maximize their future lactation, and fostering pigs that are falling behind onto a new sow will help them to catch up. Finally, it is important to constantly monitor results, and to communicate with employees about goals and their ideas.
Lactation in Motion
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The last third of pregnancy involves the greatest increase in mammary gland mass and involves estrogen, progesterone, relaxin, and prolactin. A few days prior to farrowing, colostrum forms and lactogenesis begins through cellular development, genetic expression, and some milk secretion. Lactogenesis is primarily controlled by prolactin, and it signals the switch from producing colostrum to producing milk components. After farrowing, mammary growth and function is controlled by the suckling of the piglet. Each piglet will suckle from one teat, and increased removal of milk will send signals for that gland to secrete more milk. Milk ejection occurs every 45-60 minutes for 10-15 seconds. Sows that have more cycles with less milk will release more milk in a day than those that release more milk at less frequent intervals. If a mammary gland stops being stimulated through weaning, piglet death or removal, inhibitory factors will stop milk secretion. If a teat is not suckled within three days of farrowing milk secretion will not begin, and a longer period between farrowing and suckling will result in decreased milk secretion. It is important that the interplay between piglet and mammary gland is not interrupted, and that stressors which might affect milk secretion by avoided in the farrowing room.
Using ‘translactational analgesia’ to reduce piglet pain at castration
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on September 1, 2012 | No Comments
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 labour required to administer analgesics to individual piglets are the main deterrents to
producers adopting this practice. Having an affordable and practical method of delivering pain
medication would likely increase the acceptance of this procedure and use of pain medication by
producers. Previous studies with cattle have shown that analgesics can be transferred through
milk at lactation. However, there is a lack of research on swine and the degree of passive
transfer of these drugs to offspring. The objective of this study is to determine if the analgesic,
Meloxicam©, can be delivered to the piglets via the sow. The study is being conducted in three
parts, with the first objective being to determine if a) pain medication can be passed via the milk,
and b) the drug concentration found in milk. The second objective is to determine the most effective time period that will provide the maximum transfer of drug to piglets, and the third objective is to determine whether this method is effective at reducing pain responses during or after castration.
Immunological Mechanisms Affecting Angiogenesis and Their Relation to Porcine Pregnancy Success
Posted in: Ontario Pork, Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on August 8, 2012 | No Comments
Prenatal mortality due to loss of lymphocyte-promoted endometrial angiogenesis is being investigated as a major cause of litter reductions during pregnancy in pigs. This review discusses immune mechanisms influencing porcine endometrial angiogenesis as well as additional signalling molecules that may play important roles in the compromise
of peri-implantation and mid-gestation fetal pig survival. These include dendritic cells, signalling molecules such as toll-like receptors, chemokines and ficolins. Together these cells and molecules regulate immune responses and, ideally, protect the mother and prevent immune-based conceptus losses. Dendritic cells were recently shown to be angiogenic. Their tolerogenic role at the maternal-fetal interface coupled with the ability to secrete and respond to angiogenic factors suggests that dendritic cells are the key coordinators of angiogenesis at the porcine maternal-fetal interface.
Chemokines coordinate the localization of immune effector and endothelial cells. The balance between pro-angiogenic and anti-angiogenic chemokines is addressed in relation to conceptus viability. Ficolins, components of the lectin-mediated complement activation pathway, are used for self/non-self recognition. Together, these components
of the immune system could regulate lymphocyte- and non-lymphocyte-promoted endometrial angiogenesis to determine conceptus survival.
Personal Profile – Felina Tan
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on August 1, 2012 | No Comments
Personal profile of Felina Tan featured in the Prairie Swine Centred on Swine Volume 18 Number 2 newsletter.
Thirty Five Years of Change
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After a Bachelor of Science degree and 2
years of Veterinary Medicine, a summer
accident while managing the local golf
course lead to a year off, not being able to return
to classes after missing the first 4 weeks of the
school year. In the fall of 1979, I heard that the
University of Saskatchewan was looking for a
Stockman to work at the nearly constructed swine
facility located near the Goodale farm East of
Saskatoon, and so it began.
The National Sow Housing Conversion Project: initial pilot and demonstrations
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The use of stall housing for gestating
sows has come under criticism for being
too restrictive and failing to provide
adequately for the welfare of sows. From 1st
January 2013, a legislated ban was implemented
in the EU, banning the use of sow stalls from 28
days post breeding. In 2007, the largest pork
producers in the USA and Canada pledged to
transition their sow housing to group systems
over the next 10 years. Now, increasing numbers
of food retailers, including Tim Hortons, Burger
King and McDonalds, have pledged to source
pork from producers who have developed plans
for conversion to group housing. In addition the
supermarket chains Safeway and Costco recently
announced plans to develop a stall-free pork
supply chain. Consequently, the Canadian pork
industry is under increasing pressure to convert
existing gestation stall housing for its 1.3 million
sows to group systems.
Interactions between sow temperament and housing system on factors influencing sow longevity
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With the move towards group sow
housing systems in North America,
developing management practices that
optimise sow performance and longevity in these
systems will be critical to the success and long
term profitability of swine operations. A variety of
group gestation systems have been developed,
each a different level of competition sows must
cope with. How well an individual sow copes in
each system will depend on the housing type and
management, but also on the animal’s individual
temperament.