Animal Well-being
Evaluating the welfare of piglets after weaning and transport during heat stress
January 31, 2017By Jay Johnson
Weaning is a complex stressor associated with social, environmental and metabolic stress in pigs, that can be compounded by the negative effects of transport and thermal stress. To combat these...
Swine Health - PRRS
Epitope Inclusion: Enhancing porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSv) vaccine cross-protective efficacy
January 6, 2017By Crystal Loving
Producers need better vaccines for controlling disease and spread associated with PRRSv infection. This has been an extremely different task because the face of PRRSv is constantly changing making an...
Public Health - Antibiotics & Resistance
Effect of manure application rate and timing on the leaching and runoff potential of antibiotic resistant bacteria and their associated genes
December 30, 2016By Carl Bolster
Antibiotics are used in swine production for both therapeutic and growth promotion purposes. Compounds are placed in feed or water and used in oral and injection treatments and encompass a broad...
Public Health - MRSA
Origin, evolution, and zoonotic potential of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus found in US swine farms
May 20, 2016By Tracy Nicholson
Reports claiming that livestock, particularly pigs, could serve as a reservoir for the ‘superbug’ methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) shocked the medical and veterinary...
Swine Health - PRRS
The effect of PRRSv infection on the thymus – a source of immune dysregulation?
March 7, 2016By Crystal Loving
PRRSv infection has been shown to cause an acute lymphopenia (loss of cells in the blood), lymphadenopathy (increased size of lymph nodes due to increased cell numbers) and thymic atrophy (decreased...
Animal Science
Evaluation of contributions to seasonal reproductive inefficiency
January 1, 2016By Lea Rempel
Seasonal reproductive inefficiency is globally observed within the swine industry. Even when photoperiod and temperature are controlled, reductions in pregnancies and subsequent farrowing rates...
Animal Well-being
Designer Diets Decrease Aggression and Increase Welfare
November 19, 2015By Donald Lay Jr
The current practice of pregnant sow housing uses individual housing in stalls. However, producers are under a great deal of pressure to return sows to group housing due to various reasons....
Public Health - Antibiotics & Resistance
Development of a practical, cost-effective, easy to administer prebiotic intervention to reduce carriage of zoonotic pathogens on the farm and entering the abattoir
November 2, 2015By Robin C. Anderson
The gut of pigs can be colonized with important foodborne and disease causing bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli and Campylobacter. New treatments and strategies are sought to reduce the carriage...
Animal Science - Swine Nutrition
Effect of glucosamine supplementation on litter size in a commercial setting
October 15, 2015By Jeffrey Vallet
Litter size is a key determinant of the efficiency of pork production. In turn, placental function is a key determinant of whether an individual pig fetus survives during gestation and also...
Animal Science - Sow Lifetime Productivity
Optimal dietary protein for the development of gilts. NPB #15-119 (14-235-Year2)
June 29, 2015By Jeffrey Vallet
This experiment was undertaken to develop diets that could be fed ad libitum to developing gilts that would result in differences in growth rate or body composition during development. A further...
