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.
Learn more about how you can help advance the pork industry through ongoing research.
The present goal was to examine the sustainability of pork meat protein with reference to nutrition, affordability, environmental impact, and future food demand.
The study highlights the versatile flavor nuances and textures of pork and demonstrate the possibilities of the various traditional and untraditional cuts and the effect of various preparation methods on flavor and texture.
In this study we aimed to identify proteins in ASFV using serum containing antibodies from animals with live-attenuated vaccinated animals, that could be used as targets for a serological assay to differentiate between vaccinated and infected animals, these identified proteins were attempted to be deleted from a field isolate of highly pathogenic ASFV, to determine if they could be deleted.
The purpose of this literature review was to identify the pathways by which feral swine might transmit ASFV to domestic pigs in the US.
The completed study provided information on the ability of foamed pig carcasses to be rendered. We obtained three foams, Foams A, B, and C, used for the humane killing of groups of animals in emergencies, i.e., foams used for depopulation activities. We evaluated the foams for components that could be potential residues in rendered products using mass spectrophotometry and light chromatography (MS/LC) since MS/LC is an accepted method used in food production/food safety laboratories to detect and characterize contaminants and residues, such as antibiotics and chemical growth-promoting agents. After optimizing the LC/MS method for the foam components, we humanely killed three groups of pigs with nitrogen-gas-filled foam, one group for each Foam A, B, and C, n=3 pigs per group. An additional pig (n=1) was humanely killed by captive bolt and served as a negative (no foam, i.e., no residues) control. After confirmed death and transportation to the rendering laboratory, we collected, measured, and weighed sections of skin, snouts, ears, and legs (external tissues/areas of the pig carcass in contact with the foam) from all carcasses. We determined if cooking at temperatures, times, and conditions that mirror the rendering process eliminated the residues from the collected tissues in contact with the foam. There were no detectable foam residues after rendering tissues from carcasses exposed to two of the foams (Foam A, plant-based; Foam C, Green-certified, Class A/B firefighting foam) and only minimal levels detectable for Foam C (a class A firefighting foam). Having rendering as a disposal option will not only help in the adoption of using foam-based humane killing and depopulation methods in the U.S. but also provide a cost-recovery option for producers that have depopulated pigs via foam methods by allowing the carcasses to be rendered rather than composted.
The benefit of this research to the Industry is to determine if worker COVID-19 infection and severity of recovery is linked with swine confinement dust inhalation.
Overall results indicate that precision livestock technology has the ability to provide accurate identification of compromised pigs and there is potential for precision livestock technology to provide caretakers with an early-alert system for the identification of compromised pigs.
The objective of this article is to develop a time-efficient screening tool for antimicrobials against Salmonella Typhimurium on pork loin ends. To use a statistical model (Response Surface Methodology) to study the effect of combinations of effective antimicrobial compounds to inhibit Salmonella Typhimurium cell counts on pork. To validate the results from the model using a laboratory-scale validation.
The objective of this study was to determine if a tailored swine euthanasia training tool based on the Predictive Index (PI) Behavioral Assessment improves caretaker euthanasia attitudes, perceptions, and supports improved caretaker mental welfare.
This project addresses the need to develop and validate a CSF diagnostic test with DIVA capabilities, and improving specificity and sensitivity compared to current methods.
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