Ontario Pork > Research

REPORTS

PORK INDUSTRY RELATED REPORTS, STUDIES AND PROJECTS
DATE	TITLE	TYPE	DESCRIPTION
Nov. 2011	Impact of Debt on Ontario Swine Farms	Report	It is beneficial for the Ontario swine industry to know how it compares relative to producers in other major swine producing regions and other Ontario commodities in terms of their debt levels and their ability to meet financial repayments should interest rates rise from their current historically low levels. As well, it is important to know how Ontario swine producers compare across different farm sizes and production types. A tool has been developed that allows comparison with industry averages. Depending on what the comparison reveals to the producers it may encourage them to develop business rick management strategies, or seek out training and business management advice. Debt Comparison Tool
2012	AHSI Quarterly report 7-2012 AHSI Quarterly Report 6 - 2011 AHSI Quarterly Report 5 - 2011 AHSI Quarterly Report 4- 2011 PRRS Area Regional Control and Elimination Trial Phase 1 (PRRS ARC&E Trial)	Report	The goal of this project is to implement regional PRRS ARC&E pilot projects in Ontario. These projects will advance the Ontario pork industry in disease control and biosecurity. The project began in March 2010.
Oct.11,2011	Pathogen die-off rates following manure application under Ontario field conditions	Interim Report	A field study to examine the decline of manure-derived pathogens under field conditions has been established. Sentinel chambers are being used to facilitate the study of “captive” populations of organisms within field sites without the confounding losses due to runoff-induced movement from the sites.
Oct. 2011	Enhancement of Immune Response in Piglets	Report	The research tests the hypothesis that the immune response (IR) of newborn pigs which is in adverse type 2 bias, can be modulated towards type 1 bias by repeated 1) intramuscular injections of killed bacteria or their molecular components or 2) oral treatments with the live bacterial probiotic Lactococcus lacits. Conclusions. As used, lipopolysaccharide and probiotic L. lactis reduced type 2 bias of IR allowing reduction of the immunopathological outcome, allergy. Muramyldipeptide had the opposite effect likely reflecting dose used. Data confirm that piglet IR can be favourably altered by bacteria or their derivatives.
Aug. 2011	Determination of Optimal True Digestible Calcium (Ca) to Phosphorus (P) Ratio in Grower-Finishing Pigs for Minimizing Phosphorus Excretion	Final Report	A total of 48 Yorkshire pigs with an average initial body weight of about 24kg were fed corn and SBM based diets in two experiments to measure i) true CA and P digestibility by the substitution method (Fang et al., 2007, Lives. Sci. 109: 251-254) in experiment 1; and ii) the effect of changes in dietary CA to P ratio (6 levels) on growth performance and efficiency of nutrient utilization in experiment 2.
Aug. 2011	A Literature Review on the Effects of Moisture Enhancement on Pork Quality	Report	Most of the fresh pork marketed in North America undergoes moisture enhancement, or the injection (pumping) of a solution containing salt and phosphates. This review examines concerns raised by health professionals and the public in general. It also addresses the pumping process and its influence on grocery retailers who are examining marketing of non-enhanced product.
Jul. 2011	Final Report: Effect of Tillage and Timing of Liquid Manure Application on the Transport of N, P and Bacteria to Surface and Subsurface Waters	Final Report	The focus of this research was the assessment of different management practices for their ability to mitigate transport of nitrogen, phosphorus and pathogens to surface water, tile water and groundwater from land application of liquid swine manure.
Jul. 2011	Ketosis in Nursing Sows	Report	This proposal evaluated if blood ketones can be accurately measured in sows. The research proposed that ketosis in sows may be responsible for sows going off feed during lactation.
Jun. 2011	Impact of Debt on Ontario Swine Farms	Interim Report	The project started in of November, 2010 and is scheduled for completion in September, 2011. The problem to be addressed in this study is the concern about high debt loads relative to repayment capacity for swine producers. Interest rates have been at record lows and there is growing concern about the amount of debt producers have accumulated in Ontario. This project is to address this issue by calculating Ontario industry averages for debt-related financial ratios, comparing debt ratios to other provinces and U.S. states, and developing a computerized benchmarking tool that allows individual producers to compare with relative to industry averages.
Jun. 2011	*Epidermal growth factor (EGF) expressing Lactococcus lactis* for enhancing health, well-being and productivity of early-weaned pigs**	Interim Report	The overall objective of the research project is to evaluate the effects of oral delivery of epidermal growth factor (EGF) expressing Lactococcus Lactis (L. lactis) on enhancing digestive function and growth performance of early-weaned piglets. We hypothesize that locally delivered EGF in the gastrointestinal tract using the genetically modified L. lactis can be a cost-effective option to improve early-weaned animal performance.
May, 2011	Epidemiological and cost/benefit analysis of PRRS intervention strategies	Report	The data about loses and expenditures during PRRS outbreaks are available, but there are no standard approaches to collect and to analyze such data. In this project, the researcher established a way to obtain production data and extract them from the original software, and to analyze these data using two conceptually different approaches. The first method based on stochastic modeling on distribution obtained from a limited portion of the data, and the second method based on formal statistical analysis of expanded sow dataset and nursery data.
May, 2011	Impact of immune system stimulation on nutrient utilization and response to dietary methionine plus cysteine intake in growing pigs	Report	In the study a controlled level of immune system stimulation (ISS) was achieved based on a repeated injection of increasing doses of inactivated microbial wall material (lipo-polysaccharides from coliform bacteria). It was shown that systemic ISS reduces the pig’s growth performance potential, but does not influence nutrient digestibility. It was demonstrated that the dietary requirements for methionine plus cysteine and for tryptophan for supporting body maintenance functions were increased during ISS. In metabolism and gene expression studies it was shown that ISS up-regulates metabolic pathways that utilize methionine and cysteine, reducing the availability of these amino acids for supporting accretion of body protein (e.g. muscle mass). Based on this research practical recommendations were made to adjust intake of these three key amino acids to optimize the pig’s response to sub-clinical levels of disease.
May, 2011	Executive Summary - Development of a Rapid Test for Detecting Serum Antibodies to Classical Swine Fever Virus and the full report titled Development of a Rapid Test for Detecting Serum Antibodies to Classical Swine Fever Virus	Report	Report on the work towards development for a antibody test for Classical Swine Fever using recombinant DNA and monoclonal antibodies technologies.
Apr.15,2011	Development of an Integrated Mycotoxin Management System in Ontario Grains	Interim Report	This report is a compilation of data for the second year of monitoring and study strategies for prevention, control and surveillance of mycotoxins in corn in order to mitigate mycotoxin contamination in Fusarium epidemic years. This report also provides an overview of studies being conducted in the areas of in-crop surveillance; weather based forecasting, analytical support, hybrid selection and fungicide application technologies. The summary includes conclusions and the recommendations related to each study.
Mar.31,2011	*Development of Fusarium* resistant corn inbreds for pork production**	Progress Report	The development status of a protocol that will identify young corn plants with Fusarium resistance, using in vitro UV mutagenesis and biochemical selection of cultured corn pollen.
Feb.1,2011	Reducing feed cost per unit of pork produced	Progress Report	In the last year, the researchers determined the requirement of sows for threonine at maintenance, for isoleucine and tryptophan in early and late gestation and for lysine in lactation, and studied the order of amino acid limitation in late pregnancy.
Jan.25,2011	Effective manipulation of fatty acid profiles in value-added pork products aimed at enhancing contribution of pork to human health	Report	The health benefits of poly-unsaturated, omega 3 (n-3) fatty acids in diets for humans have been well established. Yet, n-3 enriched pork products have not been marketed successfully, due largely to variability in fatty acid profiles in pork products. The latter is especially a concern in pigs fed corn-based diets because of the relatively high unsaturated fat content in corn. It was established that feeding modest amounts of flax seed leads to a significant enrichment of n-3 fatty acids in pork. The enrichment of n-3 fatty acids appears to be independent of time of feeding n-3 fatty acids and provides flexibility as to when n-3 fatty acids can be fed for generating n-3 fatty acid enriched pork. Feeding 4% flax seed containing corn and soybean meal based diets to pigs throughout the grower-finisher phase resulted in predictable levels of n-3 fatty acid enriched pork products, without compromising carcass and meat quality, and consumer acceptance of the pork products. Pork from pigs fed flax seed was considered more favorable than pork from pig fed fish oil containing finishing diets.
Nov.18,2010	Monitoring of Selected Hog Farms to Assess the Impacts of Implemented BMPs Resulting From the Nutrient Management Act	Report	The objective of this work was to select three farms to serve as “reference” farms where the effect of implementing BMPs could be evaluated over a period of several years. The sites were instrumented and monitoring protocols and strategies were developed to determine the environmental and economic benefits associated with the implemented BMPs.
Nov.12,2010	An investigation of treatment failure in Ontario pig herds Abstract from the International Pig Veterinary Society	Report	A total of 3,692 records were received by the OSVS program from July 2007 to June 2009 and 770 records reported treatment failure. Clusters of cases where treatment failure was recorded were identified. The most significant clusters occurred in colder months and involved respiratory disease. It was concluded that many of these cases were related to the difficulty in treating the respiratory disease complex in grower-finisher swine.
Dec.24,2009	Use of controlled ovulation and seminal plasma	Report	Use of controlled ovulation and seminal plasma on sow fertility to insemination of cryopreserved sperm: Causes of poor fertility after insemination of frozen-thawed (FT) sperm include fewer live sperm at thawing and a shorter lifespan of surviving sperm in the female reproductive tract due to sub-lethal damage. The present studies examined the effect of incubating thawed boar sperm in seminal plasma (SP) on sperm viability and motility in vitro (experiment 1), in vivo sow fertility to double conventional AI (experiment 2), or single intrauterine AI (experiment 3).
Nov.18,2009	Canadian Market Hog Price Forecast 2010 and 2011	Report	This paper provides an outlook on Canadian market hog prices for 2010 and 2011. The purpose of the paper is to help Canadian hog producers and their financial advisors as they develop business plans.
Sep.23,2009	Supply Management and the Ontario Pork Industry	Study	Given the backdrop of slumping pig prices, shifting profitability between Canada and the United States, the need to compete on the international stage, improved production technology, and industry consolidation it is not surprising that producers are interested in learning more about supply management and what some of the advantages and disadvantages of this marketing are.
Jun.11,2009	Producer Participation Wanted: Pig Mortality	Study	The University of Guelph in conjunction with OMAFRA and Ontario Pork wish to establish baseline values for Ontario producers for pre-weaning, mortality, nursery mortality, and finisher mortality. Enrolment in this study requires simple weekly reporting of mortalities in the farrowing, nursery, and finisher areas of production. Enrolment is open to all producers regardless of farm size or type provided that weekly mortality in at least one of the 3 areas of production (farrowing, nursery, and/or finishing) can be recorded and reported weekly.
Mar.13,2009	Sexing of Sperm Using Single Stranded DNA	Project	In livestock species, the sex of an animal is arguably the most important genetic trait with considerable influence on profit. Although current sperm sex-sorting methods by flow-cytometry are well established and functional, the development of sex-specific probes could improve efficiency of current methods, or allow the development of new sperm sorting strategies. Previous efforts to resolve differences in X- and Y-sperm have ultimately failed to identify any sex-specific molecular marker in sperm.
Mar.1,2009	OSHAB Centralized PRRSV Database Project	Report	The OPIC Swine Health Advisory Board (OSHAB) has received a $25,000 grant from the Ontario Pork Producers’ Marketing Board to develop a centralized Ontario PRRSV database in collaboration with the Animal Health Laboratory (AHL), Laboratory Services Division, University of Guelph. This tool has been designed to allow comparisons of percent similarity between PPRSV isolates from farms throughout Ontario. The database is being used by Ontario swine veterinarians and producers to help in understanding viral spread, prevalence and severity of clinical signs seen with specific variants, and is facilitating improved communications between veterinarians.
Mar.10,2008	Impact of Fermenting High-Moisture Corn	Report	In vitro-studies were conducted to assess the impact of using bacterial inoculants and enzymes on degradation of starch and phytate-phosphorus and appearance of organic acids and alcohol in high-moisture corn mixed with water in a 1 to 2 ratio. Four starter pig performance studies have been conducted at the Arkell Swine Research Station using the liquid feeding system.
Sep.1,2007	Evaluation of MRSA Colonization in Pigs & People	Report	A cross-sectional prevalence study was conducted, based on a convenience sample of 20 pig farms from south-western Ontario, Canada. Nasal and rectal swabs were collected from pigs of three different age groups (suckling pigs, weanling pigs and grower-finisher hogs). Whenever possible, five pigs from each age group were selected using a convenience sampling scheme that avoided sampling more than one pig in co-mingled groups.