Influenza is a major respiratory disease of pigs. Influenza causes reduction in pig’s performance and is a public health concern given that strains with pandemic potential can emerge in pigs. The main strategy to control influenza in pigs is sow…
Tail-biting in growing-finishing pigs
Background: Tail biting is a common problem in swine production. Tail biting not only causes economic losses for pork producers, but also results in major negative implications for welfare of pigs. Currently, the common method to prevent tail biting is…
PED virus re-infection rate of sow herds, associated risk factors, production impact and time to achieve stability
The purpose of this study was to quantify the rate of sow herds re-breaking with PED virus and evaluate the impact on performance. The study involved participants’ data from an existing program called the Swine Health Monitoring Project (SHMP). In…
Use of animal movement data and epidemiological modeling to identify premises at high risk of infection in the event of a foot-and-mouth disease epidemic
Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is one of the most contagious and economically relevant diseases affecting livestock and is rapidly transmitted between hosts. Fortunately, the US swine industry has not experienced an FMD epidemic for almost a century. However, the…
Gut physiology and metabolomics profile of pigs fed diets with carbohydrases enzymes and distillers dried grains with solubles
Feeding high fiber feed ingredients (e.g. wheat middlings and corn distillers dried grains with solubles) significantly decreases feed efficiency of pigs. However, the addition of carbohydrase enzymes to feed offer the potential to partially overcome these reductions in feed efficiency.…
Carbon, water, and land use for pork production when modifying type and regional sourcing of feed ingredients
Development of "Nutritional Tools" to Estimate ME Content in Rendered Animal Protein By-products for Swine – Revised with Expanded Objectives
Rendering is a process of grinding, heating, partial separation of fat, and drying of a wide array of inedible animal and carcass tissues, including blood, feathers, muscle, bones, fat, and offal. In the U.S., the rendering industry processes over 20…
Recovery of phosphorus and fine particles as fertilizer from swine manure by electrocoagulation
Pork production is one of the most important agricultural activities in the United States, and 75% of the swine operations are geographically located in the Upper-Midwest. The environmental effects of swine manure storage systems and land application are raising significant…
Assessment of Injuries in Pork Production Facilities
Working with pigs has its own inherent risks. The occurrence of injury in people working in agriculture is often higher than most other industries due to the changing nature of the workplace, the unpredictability of the animals, and the wide…
Systematic Review of Antibiotic Resistance of Public Health Importance in Environments near Swine Operations
Systematic reviews are a rigorous knowledge synthesis technique first developed in the health sciences to summarize information from numerous randomized trials examining the clinical efficacy of an intervention. In contrast to a narrative review, this method permits the evaluation of…