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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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.
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.
• 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The objective of this project was to evaluate the nutritional value of hybrid rye as an alternative to corn in pig diets and to assess its impact on greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen (N) excretion in pig manure.
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