Porcine Health Management

Salmonella are still a problem in pork production. Increasing litter sizes observed in recent years with lower average birth weights at the same time makes an adequate colostrum supply of newborn piglets more difficult. This study tested the hypothesis, that modern piglet producing farms with a high farrowing rate and an increased Salmonella prevalence in piglet rearing show a more unfavorable colostrum supply in suckling piglets.

In modern piggeries roughages have lost their relevance. Recently, advanced liquid feeding systems facilitate to use whole plant silage (WPS) as the basis for pregnant sows. Thus the question was whether the digestibility rate of these silages can be predicted by using the equation based on crude fibre content.

The term wasting does not imply a diagnosis by itself but is a clinical name to describe a physical
condition characterized by growth retardation, usually of multifactorial origin. This report describes
an apparently new condition of pigs clinically characterized by wasting and vacuolization of the
brain neuropil.

In practical piglet diets the branched-chain amino acid L-Valine (Val) is regarded as 5th limiting
amino acid, but inconsistent information is available about the optimal Val:Lys ratio for piglets. Aim
of this study was to investigate the optimal Val:Lys ratio through performance parameters.

The aim of this study was to compare treatment rates of nursing piglets before and after
surgical castrations were replaced with vaccinations with Improvac (Zoetis Inc.), a vaccine efficient
in reducing boar taint.

To improve the animal welfare in the pig production, Denmark made a national agreement to stop
castration without anesthesia by the end of 2018. Since the knowledge about general anesthesia
of piglets is limited, the aim of this pilot study was to obtain experiences of general anesthesia of
piglets prior to castration in conventional production facilities.

High inclusion of vegetable protein in the diet can lead to protein fermentation and predispose for
diarrhea in piglets. Therefore, the inclusion of highly digestible protein sources from animal origin
is strongly recommended to overcome the inflammatory response of the intestinal mucosa. We
hypothesized that a combination of hydrolyzed peptides of porcine intestinal mucosa (PDP) and
animal plasma (AP) can exert a synergic effect in terms of performance and intestinal health.

The aim of this study was to test the protocol (welfare measures) as a non-invasive way to assess
the welfare of pigs, and establish critical limits of pigs’ welfare, including health care, with emphasis
on an individual animal.

Pigs are particularly sensitive to mycotoxins, therefore it is of high importance to know where,
and at what level, mycotoxins occur. BIOMIN has been conducting an annual mycotoxin survey
for more than ten years, monitoring the incidences of different mycotoxins in finished feed and
agriculture commodities used in animal feed.

On-farm euthanasia is an emotional topic amongst farmers, veterinarians and stakeholders. Re
(EC) 1099/2009 requires farms to have protocols in place that transparently describe the process
and facilitate timely euthanasia. To successfully integrate a decision tool on farm the tool must
be informative and practical. Therefore, we developed and tested an on-farm euthanasia protocol
(decision tool).

Animal-based measures (ABMs) can be used effectively in the evaluation of animal welfare (AW)
on farm. Some ABMs might be also efficiently used during slaughterhouse inspections. The aim
of this work was to investigate the possibility of exploiting ABMs, collected at slaughterhouse on
Italian heavy pigs (165Kg), to obtain information about AW on farm.

The aim of the study was to find electrical parameters for appropriate electrocution of piglets after
electrical stunning to provide another euthanasia method for unviable piglets.

Liquid feeding is commonly used on German pig farms but little is known about behaviour of
pigs at feed-uptake using type of feeding. In practice pigs receive liquid feed in various feeding
blocks throughout the day. This study investigated the influence of day-time, group-size and pigto-
feeder ratio on feed-uptake.

The resident gut microbiome is one of the most abundant sources of bacterial lipopolysaccharides
(LPS) in animals, which are potent inflammatory inducers and may negatively affect. Deoxynivalenol
(DON) is a trichothecene mycotoxin that selectively target tissue with a high mitotic index such
as intestinal tissue, inducing inflammatory signaling. DON naturally occur in cereals used in swine
production.

Among livestock, piglets are considered the most susceptible species to developing iron deficiency (or anemia). This study investigated the effect of four different iron dosing schemes, which combine intramuscular and oral iron supplementation, on preventing anemia in piglets.