Category: National Hog Farmer

NHF: Unknowns remain about water quality impact on pig performance

Our monthly collaboration with the National Hog Farmer continues; this month Drs. Johnston, Shurston, Lozinski, and  Urriola from the College of Extension and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural resources Sciences explain why there is much left to research on water quality.

Non-thriving pigs in the nursery are a concern among swine producers. Pigs are eating less, they get sick and do not perform well overall.

“Could bad water on the farm be a cause for reduced health and growth performance of these challenged nursery pigs?”

That depends on how bad the water is and how you define bad versus good water. Currently, there is no standard.

Aging literature references

In the scientific literature, the most widely quoted standards for quality of water fed to livestock comes from the U.S. National Research Council (1974) and the Canadian Council of Minister of the Environment (1987 and 2005).

Inconsistent findings in current research

McLeese et al. focused on the total dissolved solids (TDS) content in water. By increasing TDS 20-fold, they noticed that it had no impact on weaned pigs fed a medicated diet whereas it reduced significantly feed efficiency in non-medicated pigs. Several studies showed that pigs scours when drinking water with an increased concentration of sulfate, without necessarily affecting performances.

Another parameter to take into consideration is that some of the barns are getting older and so is the water distribution system. Water pipes and drinkers can impact water quality if they are not properly and regularly cleaned and maintained. However, despite the importance of water distribution systems in hog barns, scientifically-evaluated treatment and procedures are hard to find.

Conclusion

In 1992, McLeese et al. stated, “However, the current literature is neither conclusive nor thorough with respect to the impact of water quality on pig health, welfare and productivity.” It seems we are still in this position in 2018.

NHF: Developing targeted disease surveillance and control plans

Our monthly collaboration with the National Hog Farmer continues; this month Dr. Kim VanderWaal shares her research regarding swine disease surveillance.

The multi-site pig production structure of the U.S. swine industry requires frequent movement of swine, making swine populations vulnerable to disease spread. This scenario becomes even more relevant in highly dense regions that concentrate thousands of pigs.

Super spreader
Farm icon created by Ferran Brown for the Noun Project

By targeting sites that play an important “connectivity” role such as gilt producing sites, prevention and control strategies for disease containment can be developed together with targeted surveillance for early detection of disease.

Swine movement data in three large production systems in the United States were analyzed to measure how a specific farm could influence a potential disease spread. Several network metrics were measured including:

  • the number of other farms to which a specific farm sent or received pigs,
  • the Mean Infection Potential (MIP), which measures potential incoming and outgoing infection chains.

For example, if a nursery farm received pigs from several sow farms and then sent pigs to multiple finisher farms, that farm would likely have a high MIP and could be called a “super-spreader” :  a farm that could contribute to a high number of infections.

The study found that by directing disease interventions toward farms based on their MIP, the potential for infectious disease transmission in the production system can be substantially reduced. Interestingly, production type (sow, nursery, finishing, farrow-finish and wean-to-finish) did not seem to be a key determinant of the MIP.

When we really break it down, it’s all about incoming and outgoing contacts and the impact on risk. For more information about analysis of movement data, identifying super-spreaders farms and implications for disease control for farms in your system, contact Kim VanderWaal.

NHF: PRRS is also a summer disease

Our latest collaboration with the National Hog Farmer was written by the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Program team regarding the incidence of PRRS in the summer.

Although our understanding of disease and control methods has improved in recent years, we continue to learn new features of PRRSV epidemiology in part thanks to the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project. One of the most recent questions that we have addressed based on enquires from MSHMP participants is whether PRRS incidence during the summer was higher in recent years (i.e. 2016-17) compared to previous years (i.e. 2009-15). We know that PRRSV outbreaks tend to have a seasonal pattern and that they are more frequent during the fall and winter, but we know little about the breaks that happen in the summer and spring.

In order to dig into this question, we analyzed MSHMP data from 2009 to 2017 which included 1,329 outbreaks. Of these, 66% of the breaks occurred during fall and winter and 14% and 20% of the breaks occurred during summer and spring, respectively. Although there were fewer breaks in the spring and summer, the number of breaks in warmer seasons was still significant which represents an on-going frustration to producers because the “PRRSV season” is supposed to be over.

As part of the analysis we learned that between 3% and 6% of the herds break yearly during the summer and spring seasons, respectively. This represents approximately 83 herds out of the 917 reporting in the MSHMP database. If we estimate that the average sow farm has 3,000 sows, then almost a quarter of a million sows break yearly during these two seasons.

Remember, although the risk of PRRSV introduction is lower during the spring and summer, PRRSV breaks still happen, so biosecurity efforts should not be decreased. PRRSV is a sneaky virus so keep your biosecurity up, even in the summer.

All of our collaborations with the National Hog Farmer can be found here.

NHF: Enteroids as in vitro model for ileitis

Our new contribution to the National Hog Farmer was written by Dr. Talita Resende, a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota under the supervision of Dr. Connie Gebhart. Talita’s research focuses on swine ileitis and models to better understand its pathogen: Lawsonia intracellularis. Today, she explains how she uses enteroids.

The small intestine is largely responsible for nutrient digestion and absorption in the gastrointestinal tracts of pigs, but it is also an ideal colonization site for enteric pathogens. The investigation of the interactions between host and enteric pathogens can be conducted in vivo, or in vitro, with advantages and disadvantages for each of the models. Enteroids, small intestinal organoids, represent a new in vitro approach to investigate those interactions. But why are enteroids a new approach and what are their advantages in comparison to the current models?

Enteroids are three-dimensional structures originated from embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent cells or adult stem cells from intestinal tissue. Therefore, they present all the cell types and a structural organization similar to crypts and villi found in the small intestine. This complex structure offers ideal conditions to investigate the mechanisms by which Lawsonia intracellularis causes proliferative enteropathy – also known as ileitis – in pigs.

Swine microbiome studies: Why, how and where are we going?

There is no Science Page this week; we will return to our normal schedule next week. In the meantime,  you may read our previous publications on our website.

Today, we will be talking about swine microbiome studies. Dr. Andres Gomez, expert in microbiome, who joined the University as part of the new AGREETT positions wrote an article for the National Hog Farmer about research on swine microbiome.

What does microbiome mean?

Microbiome refers to all of the microbes present in an area. For example, gut microbiome is the entire population of microorganisms (most of the time bacteria) present in the intestinal tract.

Microbes have been traditionally viewed through a lens of distrust, as pathogens affecting health. However, molecular and computational breakthroughs to study microbial diversity and function by sorting DNA sequences have presented a novel concept of an animal “flora” that acts as a friend as opposed to a foe.

Characterizing the microbiome to improve nutrition

Characterizing the specific microbes that increase or decrease in abundance upon pharmaceutical or dietary interventions is critical to determine precise dose-response relationships and to potentially reduce feed costs while achieving desired improvements in pig health and productivity.

Defining “healthy” microbiomes to identify poor-doing pigs

Regular “microbiome snapshots” along the most critical stages of pig growth (e.g., pre- and post-weaning), can be used to predict health and potential pathogen threats for disease by early identification of bacteria in slow-growing pigs or those that are at most risk of infection. This would allow producers to make early decisions on therapeutic or dietary interventions to enhance performance and health.

swine gut microbiome
 1) nutrients and feed additives modulate gut microbiomes to impact health and performance, 2) microbiomes across the pig anatomy are accurate biomarkers of stress such as diseases, early weaning, and heat, and 3) microbiomes in manure can be modulated to mitigate harmful gases.

Enhancing the protective microbiome

The microbiome in the gut or respiratory tract is a protective layer against infectious diseases. Thus, with microbiome research, we can determine how novel feed additives and management interventions work, by either enhancing the abundance of microbes that promote health and/or displacing those that cause disease.

Microbiome beyond pork production

For instance, specialized bacteria and fungi can degrade otherwise underutilized natural resources to maximize pig productivity, while decreasing the environmental footprint. Additionally, specialized microbial communities can also mitigate the production of dangerous gases  produced in manure pits.