Blogs
PCV2 vaccination – sows, piglets or both?
When vaccinating against PCV2 (porcine circovirus type 2), should we be vaccinating sows, piglets or both? A recent study by Fraile and others (2012) from the CReSA group in Barcelona have come up with some interesting answers. There was a lot of acrimonious debate when the first PCV2 vaccines came ...
BLOG: Pioneering in the East
I must admit – it was a bit of a gamble. When travelling out for the China Animal Husbandry Expo I was not sure what to expect. On the Web, there was hardly any English information to be found on the show. Would it be worth the while? Most information I had received on the annual CAHE show was circu...
Campylobacter infections in man – is it a pig problem?
The transmission of campylobacter, the commonest cause of gastrointestinal bacterial infections in humans is commonly blamed on meat contamination. Is it spread via pig meat to man? The good news is – it is not. If it is not, then why does the pig industry constantly get battered about the transmiss...
Comparison of PRRS effect on performance in US and Denmark
It is uncommon for two pieces of valuable information to come out at more or less at the same time, so one is bound to make a comparison. The data has not been collected in the same way but appears to be robust. So what are the differences between US PRRS and EU PRRS? A paper by Kristensen and Vinth...
BLOG: Pigs at the spa
Pigs can do unexpected things – I get that, but showing up prominently at a spa is something I had never thought of. Yet they did, only days prior to VIV Asia 2013 in Thailand – in one of those rare juxtapositions you can only find in Asia. The spa is located in the Saraburi province countryside, no...
Forgotten corner: Seasonal Infertility headache
In the northern hemisphere, Spring is just round the corner after a punitive winter weatherwise. The first line of defence against the complicated and persistent disorder of Summer and/or Autumn Infertility is to increase gilt target matings in spring by 10-15% (dependent on how hard you have been ...
MRSA – a tale of two epidemics
MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) has caused one of the major debates of antimicrobial resistance in humans and pigs – how much are pigs to blame? MRSA strains have been a major problem in man especially associated with hospital infections but also increasingly in the community. The...
BLOG: Gaps in our knowledge
While going round pig units over the past two years there have been occasions when a problem has arisen that I can find no good evidence towards a solution. Perhaps those excellent young scientists I meet at conferences and Expos might like to think about these `inconnus` in pig production? Big ...
Toys for pigs sneaking in to shows
Any trained eye could see them at EuroTier in Germany – and at the NutriFair in Denmark, they also popped up at various booths: Colourful, wooden, rubber or iron: Rooting material for pigs – to keep them happy. The attention for toys is the result of just another line in recent European Directives, ...
Not enough time spent on the baby pig?
At present on European farms of between 350 and 1500 sows, about 58% of man-hours per sow per year is spent on breeding to weaning, 24% on weaning to finishing and 18% on other tasks - repairs, maintenance, records and management.( From surveys since 2006). While more time is being spent on the vit...
