This past week-end, a dozen of veterinary students chose to meet with Drs. Maria Pieters and Perle Boyer at the University of Minnesota Southern research and outreach center in Waseca, MN to practice their pregnancy diagnostic skills over enjoying the unusually warm weather.
For over 3 hours, the first to third-year veterinary students each got the chance to perform an ultrasound examination on sows at various stages of gestation as well as on a sow that was not pregnant to appreciate the difference. Various tools were presented to them to compare and to get familiar with.
By the end of the lab, we are glad to say that all students were able to successfully tell if a sow was pregnant or not!
Tuesday marked the end of the 2016 Allen D. Leman conference held in St. Paul, MN. The conference gathered more than 850 professionals and veterinarians from the swine industry for 4 days of conferences and exchanges on the latest science-driven solutions.
Among the highlights from this conference, we would like to congratulate Dr. Deb Murray from New Fashion Pork for receiving the Science in Practice Award. The Pijoan lecture was given by Dr. Peter Davies from the University of Minnesota whereas Dr. Paul Ruen from Fairmont Veterinary Clinic presented the Hanson lecture. Dr. Joe Connor was recognized as the Breakfast Conversation Honoree this year. Lastly, our Distinguished Lecturer, Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam challenged the audience on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
If you attended the conference, you may have received an email with a link to a survey. Please, consider taking a few minutes to answer it as we very much value your input and feedback.
Thank you and see you next year, September 16−19, for another amazing edition of the Allen D. Leman conference!
The Minnesota State Fair closed its doors a week ago and once again the Miracle of Birth Center has been a huge success. This attraction, one of the visitors favorite displays cows, sows, does, goats, and hens giving birth and caring for their offspring. Animals are selected based on their estimated delivery date so that at least one birthing happens every day during the Fair.
Drs. Matt Sturos, Jerry Torrison, Alex Bianco, Bob Morrison, Fabio Vannucci, Maria Pieters, and Perle Boyer, faculty members from the swine group at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota as well as Drs. Megan Thompson, Nathan Winkelman, Abigail Redalen and Michael Strobel, professionals from the pork industry volunteered their time and shared their knowledge and expertise with the Minnesotans in order to increase awareness on what is actually happening on an American farm nowadays. Let’s also not forget the great participation of our graduate students, Drs. Talita Resende, Catalina Picasso, Luiza Roos, Jorge Garrido, Michael Rahe, and Fernando Leite.
Among the thousands of visitors admiring new-born calves and piglets, the Miracle of Birth Center had the honor of receiving the visit of the President of the University of Minnesota.
President Kaler visiting the Miracle of Birth Center at the 2016 Minnesota State Fair.
The Miracle of Birth Center has the very noble mission to educate people about modern farm production and we wish it many more successful years!
Last Friday, a team of UMN swine nutritionists and veterinarians published the results of their research on the effect of thermal treatments and additives on the inactivation and survival of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) in swine feed. They concluded that both the addition of feed additives and thermal treatments decreased PEDv load in the feed.
Fig 1. Inactivation of PEDV in complete feed when exposed to thermal processing.
The inactivation curves determined by the Weibull model for the survival of PEDV in complete feed at 120°C, 130°C, 140°C, and 145°C.
Abstract: Infection with porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes diarrhea, vomiting, and high mortality in suckling pigs. Contaminated feed has been suggested as a vehicle of transmission for PEDV. The objective of this study was to compare thermal and electron beam processing, and the inclusion of feed additives on the inactivation of PEDV in feed. Feed samples were spiked with PEDV and then heated to 120–145°C for up to 30 min or irradiated at 0–50 kGy. Another set of feed samples spiked with PEDV and mixed with Ultracid P (Nutriad), Activate DA (Novus International), KEM-GEST (Kemin Agrifood), Acid Booster (Agri-Nutrition), sugar or salt was incubated at room temperature (~25°C) for up to 21 days. At the end of incubation, the virus titers were determined by inoculation of Vero-81 cells and the virus inactivation kinetics were modeled using the Weibull distribution model. The Weibull kinetic parameter delta represented the time or eBeam dose required to reduce virus concentration by 1 log. For thermal processing, delta values ranged from 16.52 min at 120°C to 1.30 min at 145°C. For eBeam processing, a target dose of 50 kGy reduced PEDV concentration by 3 log. All additives tested were effective in reducing the survival of PEDV when compared with the control sample (delta = 17.23 days). Activate DA (0.81) and KEM-GEST (3.28) produced the fastest inactivation. In conclusion, heating swine feed at temperatures over 130°C or eBeam processing of feed with a dose over 50 kGy are effective processing steps to reduce PEDV survival. Additionally, the inclusion of selected additives can decrease PEDV survivability.
Our graduate students did a fantastic job at the 24th IPVS and we would like to congratulate them all for their hard work. Among them, Dr. Talita Resende won the IPVS award for best poster. Talita is a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota under the supervision of Dr. Fabio Vannucci and she presented a poster on A novel diagnostic platform for in situ detection and subtyping of Rotaviruses and Influenza A in pigs.
