2023-2025 NPB Industry Research Compendium
Pork Checkoff-Funded Research in Swine Health and Sustainability, 2023–2025
Pork Checkoff Research
Research is at the heart of the National Pork Board’s mission and is funded by your Pork Checkoff dollars. Research is administered in all areas of pork production, processing, and human nutrition to develop a higher quality and more profitable product in the competitive meat protein market.
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Environment - Environmental Footprint
Production Analysis Summary for U.S. Pork Industry: 2020-2024
The purpose of this analysis is to help the pork industry improve efficiency. Using anonymous production data, standardized business logic, and consistent calculation methods, the study reports on production trends and provides benchmarks for comparison.
Animal Well-being
Refining sample size recommendations for PQA Plus and CSIA audit tool
The objective of this study was to compare and contrast differences in the occurrence of animal-based measures when using the Common Swine Industry Audit (CSIA) sampling method to the total farm inventory (observing all pigs). Pigs were evaluated across 60 farms between October 2022 and July 2023.
Swine Health - Foreign Animal Disease
Participatory regional surveillance to establish regional FAD status within the U.S. and improve swine movement decisions
The extensive movement of animals, personnel, and materials facilitates the spread of infectious agents within and between countries, e.g., PEDV, ASFV, and others. Thus, an effective national surveillance system is crucial to the early detection, control, and elimination of notifiable pathogens.
Evaluation of face masks as a means to decrease the risk of influenza transmission between pigs and swine farm workers
• Influenza exposure to farm workers is common in endemically infected farms
• Use of face masks decreased influenza detection in swine workers
• N-95 respirators, surgical masks and dust masks offered protection against influenza aerosols with the N-95 masks providing the highest numerical protection
• Swine workers preferred wearing surgical masks over dust masks and N-95 respirators
Swine Health
Facilitating the U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan Feed Biosecurity Working Group
The objective of this project was to determine appropriate application of best practices for responsible import of feed and ingredients from ASF/CSF affected countries and to develop industry standards for feed biosecurity that can be rapidly implemented across the swine and feed industry in the event that ASFV or CSFV enters the US domestic and/or feral swine population.
Animal Science - Swine Nutrition
Impact of Finishing Facility Environment on Feed Efficiency
Mortality, feed efficiency, and growth rates vary between groups of wean-to-finish pigs. It is broadly understood that indoor environment and management factors impact pig performance, but there is a lack of empirical, farm-based data to quantify the impact of each factor under commercial production conditions. To address this need, sensor technologies not commonly found in commercial finishing barns were deployed to monitor barn environmental conditions.
Animal Well-being - Depopulation
Use of water-based foam to achieve rapid depopulation of swine: Assess physiological and behavioral effects in swine exposed to 5 different water-based foam products
Swine herds in the United States are susceptible to introductions of catastrophic diseases that may require mass depopulation for timely disease containment. Current options for depopulating swine, as outlined in the AVMA Guidelines for the Depopulation of Animals face logistic constraints, pose significant worker safety risks, and may not be practical at large scales.
Swine Health - General Disease
Systematic Review of Transmission Factors, Management Interventions, and Elimination Techniques Related to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea
The findings of this systematic review highlight that while PEDV eradication may be theoretically possible under idealized conditions, significant barriers remain. The high transmissibility, environmental resilience, and inability to achieve sterilizing immunity suggest that long-term endemic management is a more practical objective.
Swine Health - Foreign Animal Disease
Evaluation of Swine Carcass Disposal Benefits and Challenges Using Composting and Shallow Burial with Carbon
Among the techniques analyzed – shallow burial with carbon (SBC), whole carcass composting (WCC), and ground carcass composting (GCC), each with and without the addition of biochar – SBC treatments exhibited the most favorable overall performance in terms of both biosecurity and natural resource protection.
Swine Health
Active environmental surveillance for swine pathogens using continuous sampling
The long-term goal of this project is to develop a practical, cost-effective, active on-farm environmental surveillance system for swine pathogens based on continuous passive sampling. In brief, this would be achieved by placing "passive samplers" in swine production facilities and then periodically collecting and testing the samplers for targeted pathogens.
Animal Science
Creating a sustainability index for the United States swineindustry through stochastic modeling
Scientific Abstract Nutrient requirements of growing-finishing pigs are influenced by a complex interplay of factors, including feed intake, metabolism, and environmental conditions. To better...
