research – Swine in Minnesota

Microbiome studies in swine systems: Challenges and opportunities(Part 2)

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

This week we are sharing part 2 of Dr. Gomez’s report on microbiome studies in swine. You may read part 1 over here if you missed last week.

Key points

Due to the nature of microbiome it cannot be studied separated from other relevant information and should be studied together with metabolomics, genomics, immunity and nutrition.
Development of models at different levels are needed to evaluate the effect on microbiome of different strategies and to evaluate the impact of microbiome changes on the pig gut health.

UMN swine groups meet with the Minnesota Pork Board members

On December 17th, swine-focused faculty members from the College of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences met with the members of the Minnesota Pork Board research committee.

This year was the third iteration of this meeting, hosted for the first time by Christensen Farms. Guests were invited to tour either the feed mill or the truck wash located in Sleepy Eye before sitting down for a day of productive exchange.

After a short presentation by the host company, Deans Brian Buhr and Trevor Ames gave an update on the main initiatives from their respective Colleges. Dean Ames introduced the latest AGREETT faculty hires, Noelle Noyes and Declan Schroeder, as well as the anticipated arrival of Dr. Matheus Costa in the new year. The 2+2 program in collaboration with South Dakota State University was received with enthusiasm by the swine producers.

After lunch, attendees were divided into groups to brainstorm research ideas in four main areas: swine nutrition, swine health, manure management, and swine production and housing. After two hours of spirited discussion, 15 researchable questions were identified as the most pressing problematics faced by the Minnesotan pork industry. The meeting left the researchers inspired to keep offering science-driven solutions, and all agreed to meet again in 2019.

Swine Influenza virus A: podcast 3/3

Podcasts are perfect for summer! We are presenting you with a new series on swine influenza from “At The Meeting… Honoring Dr. Bob Morrison in collaboration with SwineCast.

Previous episodes can be found here:
Episode 1
Episode 2

In this final episode, Dr. Montserrat Torremorell (University of Minnesota), Dr. Amy Vincent (USDA Agricultural Research Service), Dr. Christa Goodell (Boehringer Ingelheim), Dr. Gordon Spronk (Pipestone Veterinary Services), and Dr. Tom Wetzell (Boehringer Ingelheim) discuss the control of IAV-S, the research & development of vaccines for IAV-S, and the products that are being developed from the research.

Click to listen to the entire recording (19 min).

The swine group is presenting its research around the world: come see us at the 2018 IPVS!

The summer has just started and our faculty and graduate students have attended multiple conferences to share the latest and most advanced results of their research. Do not miss them at the 2018 IPVS!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Come see us at the 2018 IPVS

Multiple members of our group will be presenting at the 2018 IPVS in Chongqing, China.

Name	Presentation	Date	Time
Cesar Corzo	Regional monitoring for PRRSV	Monday 11th	12:15pm
Talita Resende	Instestinal lymphangectasis and lipogranulomatous lymphangitis in pigs	Tuesday 12th	9:45am
Carles Vilalta	New strategies for sampling piglets	Wednesday 13th	10:00am
Maria Pieters	The effect of gilt flow on Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae acclimation	Wednesday 13th	12:15pm
Montse Torremorell	Transmission of influenza A virus in pigs: the role of the piglet	Wednesday 13th	13:30pm
Fabian Chamba	Influenza herd-level prevalence and seasonality in Midwestern US breeding herds	Wednesday 13th	14:00pm
Jose Angulo	Elimination of vaccine porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus as part of PRRS elimination program using load-closehomogenize method	Wednesday 13th	14:45pm
Talita Resende	Next-generation sequencing coupled with in situ hybridization: a novel diagnostic platform to identify emerging pathogens and new variants of endemic viruses	Wednesday 13th	14:45pm

Do not forget to vote for Minneapolis 2022!

Please visit us at our booth as we are competing to host the IPVS in 2022.

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.