Animal Well-being
The effect of alleyway width on sow behavior and welfare in a free-access gestation stall system
October 1, 2011By Ed Pajor
The use of traditional gestation stalls is currently under public scrutiny due to restrictions on sow movement and social interaction. But...
Swine Health - General Disease
Antigen-specific T cell responses associated with PCVAD pathogenesis
September 30, 2011By Carol Wyatt
This project was intended to determine whether or not pig with PCVAD had T lymphocytes that responded to different epitopes of the PCV CP, when compared with vaccinated pigs or pigs that had been...
Animal Science
Determinants of Profitability in Alternative Swine Production Systems
September 2, 2011By Gary Apgar
Production and financial records for 42 niche pork producers from 2006 are analyzed for the determinants of profitability. All of the producers were specialized in “natural” pork...
Animal Science - Swine Nutrition
Preparing for the inevitable increase in fiber content in practical pig diets
September 1, 2011By John Patience
Our approach was to evaluate the best ways to characterize dietary fiber from corn co-products, and to determine the site of digestion of dietary fiber in the pig to better understand its...
Animal Science - Swine Nutrition
The influence of increasing dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acid concentration on postpartum hypophagia and energy output in the milk via alterations in lipolytic activity and insulin sensitivity of the adipose tissue.
August 31, 2011By Denise Beaulieu
Introduction:In the hog industry it is imperative that we maximize the reproductive performance of sows in order to optimize pig flow and thus improve the economics of pork production....
Animal Science
Improving net returns in pork production by improving our management of the fallback pig: Characterizing biological and physiological differences in fallback pigs to determine optimal management and handling practices
August 13, 2011By John Patience
The last decade’s unprecedented rise in litter size has resulted in an increased number of fallback pigs. Fallback pigs are those that fail to achieve performance in the barn equal to that of...
Swine Health - General Disease
Improvement of vaccine protection against swine influenza: Proof-of-concept
August 6, 2011By Kyoung-Jin Yoon
Swine influenza is a growing problem in the U.S. swine industry although the disease and etiology have been known for a long time. Historically, swine influenza in the U.S. had been only due to...
Swine Health - General Disease
Genetic assessment of VDL SIV isolate pool for evidence of the swine flu strain reported to be infecting people and development of a high-throughput differential test for the novel strain
August 6, 2011By Kyoung-Jin Yoon
A novel H1N1 influenza virus (initially named “Swine Flu” and now referred to as “2009 pandemic H1N1”) emerged and caused widespread clinical disease in US and other...
Public Health - MRSA
Occurrence and molecular epidemiology of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on-farm, at slaughter and pork.
August 3, 2011By Wondwossen Gebreyes
This study was conducted on ten conventional swine farms in Ohio to investigate the occurrence and prevalence of specific bacteria known to be resistant to methicillin called methicillin-resistant...
Animal Science
Development of an in vitro model of heat stress during pig oocyte maturation and its impact on embryonic developmental competency
August 3, 2011By Jason Ross
Heat stress has a significant negative impact on agriculture production. A significant portion of this loss is recognized through lost reproductive ability in swine herds during periods of elevated...
Animal Science - Sow Lifetime Productivity
Using objective mechanical and physiologic measurement to build robust producer tools for detecting, scoring and treating lameness in sows
August 3, 2011By Locke Karriker
The main objectives of this study were: 1) To produce a robust observational lameness scoring system with accompanied visual educational material, (2) to assess sodium salicylate and flunixin...
Animal Well-being
Regulating Feed Intake of Group Housed Replacement Gilts by Altering Dietary Cation/Anion Difference
July 28, 2011By Paul Walker
The swine industry is currently facing an enormous amount of public pressure to eliminate the use of individual gestation stalls in favor of group housing for gestating sows. Since over...
