Every week, Pig Progress looks back on the previous week’s business news, conveniently capturing and summarising the most important business updates in the pig industry. Here are this week’s highlights.
Animal nutrition company Nutreco has completed the upgrade of its feed plant in Hunan, China. The plant was originally constructed in 1999 to produce compound feed. The plant has been upgraded to a premix, farm minerals and young animal feed plant. It has a capacity of 75,000 tonnes and will employ 200 people.
The company’s investments in development in Asia amounted to €15 million recently, also a new plant in Java, Indonesia was opened. This plant in East Java is Nutreco’s 2nd premix plant in Indonesia and its 5th in Asia. It has a 12,000 tonne premix and farm minerals capacity and will employ 20 people.
Merck launches injectable ileitis vaccine
MSD Animal Health (Merck in the US) has introduced Porcilis Ileitis, an injectable vaccine that offers a 20-week duration of immunity for control of ileitis caused by Lawsonia intracellularis. The vaccine can be given as a single, intramuscular vaccination to pigs as young as 3 weeks of age.
The vaccine controls the disease, reduces colonisation of L. intracellularis and reduces duration and concentration of faecal shedding. Results of a challenge study show that the vaccine has been able to induce L. intracellularis antibody titres and control both gross and microscopic lesions. As adjuvant is used the company’s own Microsol Diluvac Forte adjuvant system, which is designed for pigs, is also used.
UK-based Micron Bio-Systems have launched a species-specific mycotoxin deactivator that has been developed for use in swine diets. Based on the Ultrasorb mycotoxin deactivator, the formulation of Ultrasorb S is designed to target both the mycotoxin threat faced by swine and the physiological conditions of the pig’s gastro-intestinal tract.
Launched as part of a range of species-specific mycotoxin deactivators – including products for poultry (Ultrasorb P) and ruminants (Ultrasorb R) – Ultrasorb S was developed following research into the differing mycotoxin loads faced by individual species and the conditions under which mycotoxin deactivator activity is optimised. The mycotoxin threat faced by each species also differs.
Expanding Biomin inaugurates global HQ
In late August, Biomin opened its new global headquarters in Getzersdorf, Austria. The event was attended by Austrian finance minister Hans Jörg Schelling and governor of Lower Austria Erwin Pröll. The new 11,000 m2 facility is located 60 km west of Vienna in the Erber Group campus.
The building is the first platinum building in Austria to be constructed with ‘Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’ (LEED) certification. The company had outgrown its former headquarters in Herzogenburg, Austria, 5 km away and relocated earlier this year.
Thermo Fisher Scientific have introduced a comprehensive diagnostic kit, designed to test production animals for Swine Influenza virus (SIV) subtypes. The VetMax-Gold SIV Subtyping Kit, is a real-time PCR test and approved by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The novel kit provides veterinary diagnostic laboratories with a complete screening and subtyping solution that is both rapid and cost-effective. The kit provides a detection rate of more than 95% in positive samples, and can return results in less than a day.
Phytobiotics: new Bavaria production facility
Feed additive producer Phytobiotics, opened a new production facility in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria, Germany. The sister company Senso Additive GmbH produces most of the products, that are distributed in over 70 countries all around the globe. Both companies work closely together and are managed by Dr Hermann Roth.
The production facility has been extended since the beginning of 2015 and equipped with new machines and a modern control unit. Now the company is able to produce up to 8,000 tonnes of feed additives per year in a 3-shift operation. The highlight of the new production facility is a 10 m long fluidised bed dryer.
Anatara Lifesciences have observed positive results from its latest Australian field trial of Detach, a non-antibiotic natural therapy to prevent and treat diarrhoea in piglets. The trial showed that the therapy reduced the number of pigs with scour by 41% and reduced the severity of scour by 45%.
The trial was conducted in weaner piglets on a commercial pig farm in South Eastern Queensland. The farm had a history of post-weaning disease caused by Escherichia coli. The study was a blinded, controlled, randomised field trial comparing 2 parallel groups of piglets. Subject to a successful 3rd field trial and regulatory approval, Anatara remains on track to launch Detach in Australia in 2016.
Lallemand introduces Lallemand Forward
Lallemand Animal Nutrition has introduced a new service offering brand called Lallemand Forward. The new brand also comes with a new corporate tagline: ‘Specific for your Success’. Both are designed to reinforce the company’s commitment to the global animal nutrition and livestock production industries.
Lallemand Animal Nutrition develops, manufactures and markets high-value yeast and bacteria products including probiotics, silage inoculants and yeast derivatives. Lallemand Forward covers the R&D Centers of Excellence, education resources, technical exchanges, on-farm-services and audits and industry support.
Dutch-based feed manufacturer ForFarmers intends to build a new manufacturing facility on its Exeter, UK site to replace the current facility, and so create a large, efficient feed mill.
The new facility represents an investment in excess of £10 million (€13.7 million) and will take up to 18 months to complete and is subject to planning permission. This development is consistent with the ForFarmers Horizon 2020 strategy in providing a full range of best in class nutritional solutions to our farming customers.
Canadian genetics from Genesus to Russia
Agro-Belogorye Nucleus, Belgorod Russia and Genesus Genetics have concluded a contract for purebred breeding stock. Genesus will supply purebred pigs to stock a new nucleus farm which is under construction. The farm is being built so that Genesus Duroc sire line ensure the quality of slaughter pigs produced.
This summer Agro-Belogorye staff visited Genesus nucleus facilities in Canada. Subsequently, Jim Long, president & CEO of Genesus visited Belgorod for an official contract signing ceremony. Agro-Belogorye currently has 67,000 sows in production with complete packing and processing capacity.