Differences in Mating Between a Boar, Traditional Artificial Insemination, and Post Cervical Insemination

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on March 28, 2012 | No Comments

Sows can be bred by mating with a boar, traditional artificial insemination, or, more recently, post-cervical artificial insemination. Mating with a boar differs from artificial insemination because the boar has a higher number of sperm per ejaculate than an AI dose, and because it is a three phase ejaculate: the pre sperm flush, sperm rich fraction, and post-sperm rich fraction. The three sections work with the sow’s uterine contractions to deliver sperm to the egg. Traditional AI does not insert as far into the cervix as a boar, contains fewer sperm per dose, and is a homogenous mixture. Semen loss is also increased because of the lack of plug that a boar’s post-semen rich faction creates. Post-cervical AI delivers sperm to the uterine body reducing the distance and sperm loss, and it is less time consuming that traditional AI. However, it generally cannot be used on gilts. The reproductive performance of traditional and post-cervical AI is similar, but PCAI achieved this with fewer sperm per dose.

Post Cervical Artificial Inseminations in Sows – What, Why, How?

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

Post-cervical artificial insemination (PCAI) can reduce costs, use less semen, and utilize superior genetic for more sows. PCAI represents an economic savings as it is faster than traditional AI, so requires less labour, and uses less semen. The reproductive performance of using PCAI instead of traditional AI has been variable, even though the expectation was an increase. PCAI does not require a boar, but does need time for the cervix to relax. As well, heat checking is still necessary, timing remains important, and PCAI does not appear to be appropriate for gilts yet. PCAI is still a developing technology, but has the potential to increase breeding rate, reduce labour and costs, and increase availability of superior semen.

Impact of Lameness on Productive Potential of the Sow

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

Lameness is a major reason for culling, and it represents a decrease in welfare, productivity, and profit. High culling rates are economically expensive, reduce productivity, and represent a risk to herd health when new gilts are brought in. Young sows are often culled due to lameness and reproductive failure, so efforts should be made to reduce these numbers. Lameness can be caused by many reasons, but claw lesions can result in pain and inflammation. This can lead to reduced feed intake, lowered BCS, and inflammatory responses that can impact the entire body including reproductive organs. Lowered BCS can also increase the chance of a sow developing acyclic ovaries. Nutrition can be used to improve claw health, and trials using Zn, Mn, and Cu supplementation showed improvements in claw lesion occurrence and severity. The treated sows also had an increased reproductive performance as indicated by birth weights and litter size.

Measuring Lameness in Sows

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production, Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Lameness is the second most common reason for culling sows and gilts, and increases mortality and decreases welfare. Visual observations are usually used to assess gait, lameness, and leg and hoof health, which is subjective. More objective measures can include using kinetics with force plates, kinematics by assessing movement videos, and high-resolution floor mats. These are expensive options, so data loggers and analyzing lying position may be more feasible. Three techniques were compared: visual gait scores, kinematics, and postural behaviour. Kinematics was an expensive and time-consuming option. Gait scores and postural behaviour could be used on farm, but results can differ depending on the housing system used.

Advanced Sow Troubleshooting

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

Effective troubleshooting is not just responding to problems, but also implementing preventative changes and focusing on progress rather than maintaining the status quo. It is important for the producer to regularly be able to detach and assess the barn as compared to others, and to identify problems as they are occurring. Some of the problems producers run into when troubleshooting are the inability to admit there is a problem, lack of communication, and not being open-minded to suggestions.

Tools, Techniques and Strategies to Improve Reproductive Performance and Genetic Progress

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

One of the goals of reproductive technology is to be able to use a single dose of semen with lower sperm numbers, and to maintain farrowing rate and litter size. The choice of reproductive technology used will depend on the farm. Farms that use replacement gilts from their own herd will be more likely to choose single sire semen, select for specific traits, and take a reduced farrowing rate to achieve this. Farms with outside replacements will be more likely to use pooled semen and aim for high fecundity. Post-cervical artificial insemination requires further technician training and more expensive catheters, but can be successful with lower semen doses meaning good sire genetics can be used on more sows. Increased reproductive performance can also be achieved by removing sires with lowered fertility from the pool. Reciprocal translocation and fourier harmonic analysis can be used to determine which boars are sub-fertile. As well, individual ejaculates can be evaluated on sperm motility and morphology. Properly monitoring estrus, and breeding at the correct time will also improve reproductive performance. Synchronizing ovulation in sows would allow for successful AI without heat checking, and eCG with pLH or a GnRH antagonist can be used. Finally, with new technology and procedures it is still important that equipment is working properly, maintained and replaced as needed, and consistent protocols followed.

Effect of crude glycerol combined with solvent-extracted or expeller-pressed canola meal on growth performance and diet nutrient digestibility of weaned pigs

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production, Swine Innovation by admin on March 15, 2012 | No Comments

Partially substituting soybean meal and wheat with canola co-products was evaluated using 240 weaned pigs [6.3 kg initial body weight (BW)]. Pigs were fed for 4 week pelleted diets containing 150 g/kg of solvent-extracted or expeller-pressed canola meal either with 0 or 50 g/kg crude glycerol or a soybean meal control diet to measure performance and diet nutrient digestibility. The wheat-based diets were formulated to contain 9.45 MJ/kg net energy (NE) and 1.13 g standardised ileal digestible (SID) lysine (Lys)/MJ NE. Glycerol increased (P<0.05) diet digestible energy content by 0.6 and 0.2 MJ/kg of dry matter for solvent-extracted and expeller-pressed canola meal diets, respectively. Canola co-product diets had a lower (P<0.05) nutrient digestibility than the control diet, while DE content did not differ. For days 0–28, BW gain and feed efficiency did not differ between the types of canola meal, the two levels of glycerol, and the canola co-product diets and control diet, although feed intake was 6% higher (P<0.05) for the control than canola co-product diets. In conclusion, 150 g/kg of solvent-extracted or expeller-pressed canola meal or with 50 g/kg glycerol can partially replace soybean meal and wheat in diets formulated to equal NE and SID amino acid content fed to weaned pigs without affecting growth performance.

© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effect of feeding expeller-pressed canola meal on growth performance and diet nutrient digestibility in weaned pigs

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production, Swine Innovation by admin on | No Comments

The effects of feeding increasing levels of expeller-pressed (EP) canola meal in substitution for soybean meal as an energy and amino acid source were evaluated in 240 weaned pigs with an initial body weight of 7.3 ± 0.6 kg. Five pelleted wheat-based diets containing 0, 50, 100, 150 or 200 g EP canola meal/kg were formulated to contain 10.0 MJ net energy (NE)/kg and 1.18 g standardised ileal digestible (SID) lysine/MJ NE and were fed for 4 wk starting 1 wk after weaning at 19 days of age. Expeller-pressed canola meal was added at the expense of soybean meal and the diets were balanced for NE using canola oil and for amino acids using crystalline lysine, methionine, threonine and tryptophan. Increasing inclusion of EP canola meal linearly reduced (P<0.001) the apparent total tract digestibility of energy, dry matter and crude protein and the digestible energy content of diets. From 0 to 28 days on trial, increasing inclusion of EP canola meal did not affect body weight gain, feed intake and feed efficiency. In conclusion, up to 200 g EP canola meal/kg can replace soybean meal in diets formulated to equal NE and SID amino acid content and fed to nursery pigs starting 1 wk after weaning without reducing growth performance.

© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effect of feeding solvent-extracted canola meal on growth performance and diet nutrient digestibility in weaned pigs

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production, Swine Innovation by admin on | No Comments

The effects of feeding increasing levels of solvent-extracted canola meal in substitution for soybean meal as an energy and amino acid source were evaluated in 220 weaned pigs with an initial body weight of 8.1 ± 1.8 kg. Five pelleted wheat-based diets containing 0, 50, 100, 150 or 200 g canola meal/kg were formulated to contain 9.74 MJ net energy (NE)/kg and 1.21 g standardised ileal digestible (SID) lysine/MJ NE and were fed for 4 wk starting 1 wk after weaning at 19 days of age. Canola meal was added at the expense of soybean meal and the diets were balanced for NE using canola oil and for amino acids using crystalline lysine, threonine and tryptophan. Increasing inclusion of canola meal reduced linearly (P<0.05) the apparent total tract digestibility of energy, dry matter and crude protein and quadratically(P<0.05) the digestible energy content of diets. From 0 to 28 days on trial, increasing inclusion of canola meal did not affect body weight gain, feed intake and feed efficiency. In conclusion, up to 200 g solvent-extracted canola meal/kg can replace soybean meal in diets formulated to equal NE and SID amino acid content and fed to weaned pigs without detrimental effects on growth performance.

© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chemical characteristics, feed processing quality, growth performance and energy digestibility among wheat classes in pelleted diets fed to weaned pigs

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production, Swine Innovation by admin on | No Comments

Among wheat classes based on end use, the nutritional quality of wheat for pigs is expected to vary. Therefore, Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR), Canada Prairie Spring White (CPSW), Canada Western Amber Durum (CWAD), Canada Western Hard White Spring (CWHWS) and Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW) wheat are separated out from Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat, which is the standard wheat for bread also known as hard red spring wheat. Two cultivars from these six wheat classes were characterised for their physicochemical, feed milling properties and nutritional value for young, growing pigs. Growth and energy digestibility were studied for 3 wk with weaned pigs (12.8 ± 1.2 kg initial body weight) fed diets containing 650 g/kg wheat [14.6 MJ digestible energy (DE)/kg; 14.2 g digestible lysine/MJ DE]. Wheat crude protein (on dry matter basis) ranged from 124 to 174 g/kg among classes: 127–165 g for CPSW and CPSR, and 165–170 g/kg for CWAD. Total non-starch polysaccharides ranged from 90 to 115 g/kg among classes. For days 0–21, average daily gain, average daily feed intake and feed efficiency did not differ among wheat cultivars and classes (P>0.05). The coefficient of apparent total tract digestibility of energy in the diet was lowest (P<0.05) for CPSR (0.87), intermediate for CPSW, CWRS, CWHWS (0.87–0.88) and highest for CWAD and CWRW (0.89). Feed pelleting speed and pellet durability did not differ (P>0.05) among wheat diets but pelleting increased viscosity of diets (P<0.001). Principle component analysis revealed the negative impact of fibre components on feed efficiency. In conclusion, despite variations in chemical characteristics and DE content among wheat classes, young pigs fed all classes of wheat including CPSW, CPSR and CWAD may perform effectively.

© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.