PRRS - The disease which keeps bugging us

It certainly does! I've just read an excellent review under the above title by Jeff Zimmerman of Iowa State University given to the London (Ontario) Swine Conference 2008. In common with so many of the erudite papers on the disease during the past 5 years, it covers epidemiology (veterinary-speak for what can cause disease) excellently.
01 Sep 2008 - 5 comment(s) - Read more »

High time for net energy

When was the last time you checked your formulations? If your diets are still formulated on digestible energy (DE) or metabolisable energy (ME), it is high time to question these nutrition practices. The net energy (NE) system is by far the best and most accurate system to use in all pig diets and it will enable you to better match available ingredients with actual animal needs. So, let's talk more about it!
19 Aug 2008 - 12 comment(s) - Read more »

Semen - the silent spreader of disease?

There has just been released an excellent review article on diseases transmitted potentially by semen to pigs by Dominiek Maes and others (2008) from the University of Ghent. It lists the number of infections, which can be transmitted by semen. It raises this question: are producers, breeders, countries even continents doing enough to control contamination of this very valuable product and its potential to spread infection?
12 Aug 2008 - 3 comment(s) - Read more »

Now is the time - what to do about autumn infertility?

Now is the time (for those in the Northern hemisphere) to take action to combat that very common problem soon to arrive of returns, poor heats, and later on in the year, small litters, variable birthweights and probable abortion storms. Autumn infertility is as bad as ever it was.
05 Aug 2008 - 4 comment(s) - Read more »

Wheat versus maize

Questions whether maize can replace wheat - or the other way round - are frequently asked. Such concerns usually emerge when alternative cereals are priced competitively (due to oversupply or lower quality).
28 Jul 2008 - 4 comment(s) - Read more »

EU salmonella survey - where do we go from here?

The EU salmonella baseline survey in pigs has now been released but where do we go from here?
21 Jul 2008 - 0 comment(s) - Read more »

What makes a good pig manager?

Over the past 15 years I have been privileged to sit in discussion with some very impressive and successful pig farm managers. One can learn much from successful people in all walks of life, and once I left the farm I made some notes and recorded some of their verbatim comments. I opened this file when I wrote last month's blog on 'Who takes vital decisions on the pig farm?'
14 Jul 2008 - 6 comment(s) - Read more »

InraPorc

As a field nutritionist working for a major feed company, and now as an independent consulting nutritionist, I have found that certain tools make life not only much easier, but they also create a more profsssional environment and a serious context for discussion.
07 Jul 2008 - 0 comment(s) - Read more »

PCV2 - growing evidence strain mutation might be the cause of PMWS

There is growing evidence that PMWS (post-weaning multisystemic wasting disease) was caused by a mutant PCV2 (porcine circovirus type 2) strain, which was more pathogenic and was able to express the disease more severely.
01 Jul 2008 - 1 comment(s) - Read more »

Who decides what on the Pig Farm?

From a file marked 'Labour Use' on my client's farms, I recently came across some statistics I have noted down on this subject across the decade of the 1990s, and indeed since then. How things seem to have changed!                             
23 Jun 2008 - 4 comment(s) - Read more »