The opinion of the bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of PigProgress.net or Reed Business. Comments welcome.
Latest Blogs (161-170 of 249)
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?
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.
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).
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?
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?'
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.
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.
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!
Rice for piglets
Rice has long been recognised for its gastrointestinal soothing
properties. Diarrhoeas in children are still being addressed with just boiled
rice in many parts of the world. But, so far we have had only speculations of
how rice improves health and which components of it are responsible for such
effects.
Between a rock and a hard place - difficult one for the EFSA
Presumably, it is the responsibility of the European Food Safety Agency
(EFSA) to reduce the incidence of Campylobacter and Salmonella food poisoning in
man across Europe. Just when it approves of the use of certain antimicrobial
substances (sounds more like disinfectants to me) for treating poultry
carcasses, which tend to carry these infectious agents, a storm has arisen that
it will let in US poultry meat. Who would be a politician?
