Castration alternative offers faster growth, more quality meat in study
Apr 03, 2019Susan Spiegel
A novel castration alternative allows male pigs to grow faster and produce more high-quality meat than physically castrated or entire hogs, a new analysis shows.
Webb: FAD outbreak could be financially crippling for US pork industry
Mar 03, 2019Susan Spiegel
A single reported incident of a trade-limiting foreign animal disease (FAD) would devastate the US pork industry, perhaps causing billions of dollars in losses.
Strategies to weaken PRRS’ grip on US herds
Feb 22, 2019Susan Spiegel
After more than three decades, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) remains a serious disease threat to swine units in the US.
Whole-herd vaccination critical to long-term PRRS management
Feb 22, 2019Susan Spiegel
Vaccinating entire herds against PRRS is crucial to ensuring the virus doesn’t become untreatable in the future, says a UK veterinarian.
How FADs have affected foreign markets
Feb 07, 2019Susan Spiegel
Since the middle of the 20th century, numerous foreign animal disease (FAD) outbreaks involving the pork industry have been recorded throughout the world.
Managing pain, Strep suis infection in baby pigs critical for welfare
Jan 30, 2019Susan Spiegel
The US pork industry has demonstrated high standards for animal welfare, but there is still much to learn about mitigating pain — not only during processing, when pigs are often castrated and...
Finding ‘root of the problem’ key in herds with multiple disease challenges
Jan 24, 2019Susan Spiegel
New diagnostic tools have helped the pork industry get a better handle on disease monitoring, but how do you prioritize when multiple pathogens have infected the herd?
Nerem: Shift focus to responsible antibiotic use, not arbitrary reductions
Jan 16, 2019Susan Spiegel
Some retailers and foodservice companies are asking for animals that have never received antibiotics (“no antibiotics ever” or NAE), but that request fails to recognize that animals — like...
Tails or testicles: Which are better for PRRSV monitoring?
Jan 04, 2019Susan Spiegel
Pooled serum samples are a common method to monitor PPRSV in piglets. But this typically involves a limited number of samples, which reduces the sensitivity and makes detection especially challenging...
Parvovirus still poses threat to breeding herd
Dec 14, 2018Susan Spiegel
For as long as anyone can remember, pork producers have vaccinated gilts for parvovirus. Now that outbreaks are rare, is it necessary to vaccinate the entire breeding herd?
