Current research on the benefits of carnosine for pork and people suggests it might be a good idea moving forward.

A tax audit may be even less welcome than PEDv, but some audits are better than others. For pork producers, the good kind is an audit of on-farm best management practices conducted in 2017 at 24 farms across Canada. The audits were one of five pillars in the project “From Innovation to Adop-tion: On-farm Demonstration of Swine Research”.

They say that "cleanliness is next to godliness", but for trailers hauling hundreds of hogs, it can be next to impossible. Since "dirty" and "diseased" often go hand in hand, science is targeting these trailers as part of the project "Improved Biosecurity in the Canadian Swine Transport Industry – Phase 3".

As your pigs will attest, feeding them is pretty important. Yet with ever rising feed costs, keeping your animals well nourished without starving your bank account can be a challenge. This was the scenario addressed by two recent studies that, between them, sought to reduce feed costs while benefitting health and society in the process.

Water is something that’s easy to take for granted…unless you’re the one footing the bill. As pork producers grapple with razor-thin margins, cutting costs is critical.

Though no one can predict tomorrow, assessing the pig microbiome today and where it goes from here was the focus of the final speaker at an information session held by Swine Innovation Porc prior to the 2020 Banff Pork Seminar. He may lack a crystal ball, but Dr. Andrew Van Kessel has the credentials as a professor in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science, College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan.

Pigs don’t sweat. Their lack of functional sweat glands can be dangerous or even fatal during transport, and it prompted a study on the impact of ventilation in warm weather for pigs prior to unloading at the plant.

Both literally and financially, it’s not a pretty picture, as gut issues cost pork producers time, money and lost production. In any battle, the key to victory is knowledge of your opponent, and that was a focal point for the information session held by Swine Innovation Porc prior to the 2020 Banff Pork Seminar.

There are many conditions from which sows can recover, but death isn't one of them. Apart from the psychological toll that sow losses place on workers, they can be deadly to your bottom line. Researchers understand this all too well, and are seeking to address the issue, along with other sow challenges, in the project "Optimizing sow productivity and management: Impact of grouping practices on sow reproductive performance and piglet development and identification of risk factors for sow mortality".

As a marketing slogan, “quality is overrated” never caught on, and for good reason. To pork consumers and producers, quality is king. As science applies the latest technology to predict, measure and enhance pork quality, using everything from bruises to pig ears, industry is eying the results with interest.