Biosecurity, boars and benchmarking in Pig Progress 9

To start with the last theme – breeding and genetics – Pig Progress was fortunate enough to take a little look into DanBred’s new boar manual. The Danish breeding company publishes a step-wise manual with many chapters how to deal with its male animals.

Pig Progress had a sneak preview and chose the chapter as to how to train the boars. Dummies, stroking, boards, feeding – many tips and tricks are discussed by DanBred’s Trine Lund Pedersen on pages 6-7.

Biosecurity as answer to ASF in South Korea

On the verge of health and breeding issues is Hendrix Genetics’ pig division, i.e. Hypor. This company has been very prominent in South Korea and sees this country confronted with African Swine Fever (ASF) in recent months. Boerderij reporter Judith Waninge and Pig Progress editor Vincent ter Beek learned about the ‘BioHypor’ system – a well thought-through biosecurity approach which should keep farms free from ASF. Pages 16-17

African Swine Fever in the Philippines

And whilst we were in Asia, we also took a look into the situation in the Philippines. Dr Steven McOrist has an insight view as to what has been going on there in recent months and shares his experiences on pages 12-14.

Photo: Dr Steven McOrist

Farm visit Spain: Welfare, precision farming and health

Also in this month’s farm visit, health issues were never far off. With the help of German syringe manufacturer Henke-Sass, Wolf, Pig Progress was allowed to visit Albesa Ramadera, an innovative model farm near Lleida, Spain. The farm aims to combine animal welfare, precision farming and a good health status. Throw all these philosophies in the blender and the result is a fascinating visit on pages20-23.

Laia Calderó Puig (left) and Cristina Sanmartín Ruíz vaccinating a piglet against PCV2. Note the yellow light in the vaccination device. Photo: Vincent ter Beek

Lar: large agro-industrial complex in Brazil

More on-site visits in this edition as we also took a look at a feed production site of the Brazilian cooperative Lar. This is one of the larger agro-industrial cooperatives in Brazil. As African Swine Fever in Asia is likely to offer great export opportunities, the cooperative is keen to keep its business clean and free from any potential pathogenic hazards. Pages 8-10

The Lar feed mill in Santa Helena, PR, Brazil. Photos: Vincent ter Beek

International shows in Qingdao, China

Pig Progress has been truly on the move over the last few months as colleagues Rosie Burgin and Vincent ter Beek also paid a visit to Qingdao, China, mid-September, to take a look at the 2 large international trade shows that were held simultaneously there. VIV Qingdao took place in western Qingdao, whereas EuroTier China was organised 50km down the road in this huge city. The shows were held in a time when ASF has rampaged the Chinese swine industry. How did the virus affect the shows? Let us take you back to VIV Qingdao (pages 28-29) and EuroTier China (pages 30-31).

Innovative companies in the AgTech business

Pig Progress also took a look at the Animal AgTech Summit, held 1-2 October in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This relatively new concept aims to get companies in the international animal agribusiness together to discuss applications and innovations with regard to precision farming. Various interesting new companies were present and explained their case – we highlight 5 of them on pages 26-27.

Financial benchmarking on pig farms

One of the ways precision farming can benefit pig producers is through the possibility of benchmarking. After all, being able to monitor and measure all kinds of developments inside pig farms, also allows farmers to compare performance with others. In Canada, financial benchmarking has become popular, as correspondent Treena Hein explains on pages 24-25.

Benchmarking starts with knowing exactly what is going on inside the pig houses. Photo: Bert Jansen

Columns on immunity and pessimistic pigs

Columnist John Gadd continues where he left off in October with his series on immunity, and discusses now which type of stressors exist for pigs and what can be done about them (page 15). Then, Dr Monique Pairis-Garcia discusses the different types of animal welfare definitions – and delves into the value of knowing what an animal experiences (page 34).