Manitoba Swine Seminar
Manitoba Swine Seminar February 8 & 9 at the Victoria Inn Hotel & Convention Centre in Winnipeg.
The theme continues, “Sharing Ideas and Information for Efficient Pork Production.”
Some of the featured speakers are: Dr. Andrew Van Kessel, USASK/VIDO; Dr. John Carlos Pinilla, PIC; Bob Burden, Serecon; Cam Dahl, Manitoba Pork and Devon Baete, Invasive Pig Elimination Project plus several other presentations by industry experts.
To register please refer to website
manitobaswineseminar.com. •
Saskatchewan Livestock Expo
Saskatchewan Livestock Expo is on Thursday February 9th, 2023 starting at 8:30am. The 13th annual show in Swift Current, SK. will be held at the Kinetic Exhibition Park, featuring a trade show, door prizes, live auction and of course the Cramer Cup series.
For details or information contact expo manger Lisa Doyle of Vibrant Even Management at 403.305.1563 or
E: lisa@vibranteventmanagement.ca
The trade show is SOLD OUT.
For details on or about the Cramer Cup series contact Doug Cramer at 306.520.3553
For those who like to plan far ahead pencil in Thursday February 22, 2024 for next years Saskatchewan Livestock Expo. •
APC Industry Award Nominations
Now is the time to send in your nominations for the Alberta Pork Congress Industry Awards. It’s Time to Celebrate our Industry!
Lifetime Achievement Award (Honours individuals who have played an integral role in advancing the pork industry in Alberta and celebrates their long-term commitment and unwavering dedication to the industry).
Farm Team Award (Recognizes the farm unit which operates in an exemplary manner through commitment and longevity of the staff with virtues of hard work and cooperation, celebrating dedication of the team toward working together for the success of the farm).
Pork Industry Ambassador Award (Honours individuals or companies whose efforts reflect a commitment above and beyond the accepted expectation of the pork industry in Alberta. It recognizes individuals or companies whose actions have become a valuable asset to the pork industry and acknowledges those whose actions have become models for peer recognition).
For more information or to nominate either an individual – team, please contact the Alberta Pork Congress office at 403.542.7906 or email kate at
kate@albertaporkcongress.com. Deadline for nominations is March 15th. Awards will be presented during the banquet at Alberta Pork Congress June 14th, 2023. Visit our website to make your nomination online! •
Alberta Pork Regional Meetings
The dates for the Alberta regional meetings have been set. Watch your inbox for more details, times, locations and to register.
March 13th in Grand Prairie, March 14th in Red Deer, March 15th in Drumheller and March 16th in Lethbridge. •
Manitoba Pork AGM
Mark Thursday April 13th on your calendars for the Manitoba Pork Annual General Meeting. The meeting will be held at the Fairmont in Winnipeg. Watch your inboxes for upcoming details. •
Montana Livestock Expo
The Montana Livestock Expo will return to Great Falls MT Thursday April 20th for its 3rd installment. The one day show will take place at Montana Expo Park in Great Falls.
New for 2023 Heifer Pen Show and Livestock Equipment Demos.
For details and registration contact Doug Cramer at 306.520.3553 or email
cramerexpomgmt@gmail.com. Registration is now open. Check the website for downloadable form at
www.cramereventmanagement.com •
Alberta Pork Congress
The 47th annual Alberta Pork Congress will be held at Westerner Park in Red Deer June 14th & 15th.
In addition to the two day trade show Alberta Pork Congress is happy to welcome back the awards banquet dinner Wednesday June 14th and a BBQ on Thursday June 15th. Final details are being confirmed and will be shared soon.
Your Alberta Pork Congress board of directors team is working on a few new exciting things for this years show. Again details will be shared soon.
On line booth booking is now open, check out the website albertaporkcongress.com
For more details and information contact Kate Kelly, at 403.542.7906 or email her at kate@albertaporkcongress.com •
Saskatchewan Pork Symposium
If marking your calendars for all the events in 2023, another one to pencil in is Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium. The two day event is planned for November 7th & 8th. More details will be available in the months and issues to come. •
Government of Saskatchewan and Sask Pork Invest $1 Million in Swine Disease Preparedness
Recently, Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit announced $700,000 in funding to support swine disease mitigation efforts. Sask Pork will also be providing $300,000 toward a swine market disruption plan, which will help industry respond to potential market closures due to an animal health emergency event such as African swine fever.
“Mitigation of, preparedness for, and response to animal diseases are all critical factors in supporting the Saskatchewan swine industry,” Marit said. “This funding will support a healthy hog sector and protect hog producers and abattoirs during potential market disruptions.”
The funding will support the creation of a cull line at the sow processing facility Donald’s Fine Foods is constructing in Moose Jaw. This would allow for humane slaughter of domestic hogs if a serious swine disease outbreak ever temporarily stopped trade.
“The pork industry has been working diligently on both prevention, such as biosecurity improvements, and preparedness, so infrastructure is in place to respond if African swine fever were to enter the country,” Sask Pork Board Chair Toby Tschetter said. “We appreciate the collaboration with the provincial government and industry that made the announcement possible.”
“Ensuring Saskatchewan’s pork industry is positioned to respond to a potential market disruption and safeguard animal welfare is key to the continued success of the sector,” North 49 Foods CEO Allan Leung said. “We are pleased to play a role in this important plan.”
African swine fever (ASF) is a viral disease that only impacts pigs. To date, ASF has never been detected in Canada.
The public can reduce the risk of ASF infection in Saskatchewan pigs by declaring all animal and food products, as well as out-of-country farm visits at the border, when entering Canada, to prevent the spread of foreign animal diseases. •
Canada Leads U.S. in Scrapping Sow Crates
The Canadian pork industry expects 60 per cent of the national sow population will be out of gestation crates by the end of the year, but in the United States it’s only 18 per cent of the farms and seven per cent of the sows.
Canada’s pork industry is moving to respond to customers, such as fast-food restaurant chains and supermarkets which don’t want pork from farms using sow gestation crates.
In 2002, Florida became the first state to pass legislation on the use of gestation crates with the other nine states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island – following. Of those, Ohio is the only one to not have the rules implemented as of 2022.
The report says that by 2026, gestation crate bans will impact more than seven per cent of the U.S. breeding sow herd and almost 18 per cent of breeding operations.
The report also shows several other states tried, but failed, to enact similar laws.
New Jersey saw two bills regarding gestation crates vetoed by the governor in 2013 and 2014.
New York has seen several proposed bills since 2011.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in October regarding The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation’s challenge to California and Massachusetts legislation that prohibits the sale of pork from any animals, or the offspring of animals raised under the prohibited conditions, regardless of the state where the pork was produced.
A decision is expected before spring. •
— By Jim Romahn
Immigrant Veterinarians Gain Way to Practice Here
The Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon is offering a path for immigrant veterinarians to gain accreditation to practice as swine veterinarians in Canada.
But it won’t be easy.
They will need to have at least permanent residence status in Canada, be fluent in English, have a strong resume in swine medicine and pass an American Board of Veterinary Practitioners entry exam.
Dr. John Harding, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, said “once we have applicants that meet these criteria, we’ll short list and then start a vetting process by an academic committee.”
And then they face three years of training during which they will spend 60 to 70 per cent of their time working in the industry and 30 per cent at academic studies.
The first cohort might be ready as soon as later this year. •
— By Jim Romahn
SK Engages Truckers to Reduce Disease Spread
Farm Health Guardian of Guelph is partnering with the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board to test truck-tracking monitors that could reduce the risk of diseases spreading among hog farms.
Rob Hannam, chief executive officer for Farm Health Guardian, said Saskatchewan has remote locations, cell service can be spotty and not every barn has WIFI so not all technologies work on all farms.
There are 26 different pig farms that volunteered to be part of the pilot.
We placed different technologies, different devices in 10 different trucks that go to those farms on a regular basis just so we could monitor do those devices work on those 26 farms, he said.
Disease can move through the air, it can move from pig to pig but when pigs move, they move on a truck so the trucks and whether they’re cleaned out or not or whether they’re washed or baked, those are important factors and so monitoring those livestock trucks is quite important, the partners said. But, if there is a disease outbreak, it’s more than just the livestock truck. It’s the feed truck, it’s the maintenance truck, who else was on the farm so we’re trying to link that whole network together, they said.
To do that we need to also respect the confidentially and privacy of those different haulers, Hannam said. •
— By Jim Romahn
Feds support Hypor-University of Alberta Research
The federal government’s Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is giving a grant to support research for Hypor and the University of Alberta to research sow productivity.
By studying the underlying genetics and phenotypic relationships between different traits for better sow lifetime productivity, we aim to present new findings and applications for a more efficient and sustainable swine industry, the partners said in a news release.
The aim is to extends sow productivity so not as many replacements will be needed.
The majority of the research will take place at Bon Accord, Hypor’s nucleus breeding farm located in Ituna, Saskatchewan, Canada. Relevant data from other Hypor dam-line nucleus units will also be used.
The partners will collect detailed information on weight, growth, feed intake, and feeding behavior of gilts/sows during development and gestation.
One aspect will reveal the factors that influence age at puberty and another will provide insights into optimal weight at service and farrowing to optimize litter size, milk production, litter growth and second parity litter performance.
By implementing new technologies for gathering individual data on group housed sows such as measuring weight development during the life of the sow, or feed intake during lactation, we can make more accurate selection decisions, which have the potential to improve sow lifetime productivity, the partners said.
Results from the project may lead to enhanced rearing and management practices for better productivity at the commercial level for Hypor customers.
According to Abe Huisman, director of research and development for Hypor, “improved sow lifetime productivity is just one aspect of creating a more sustainable swine industry.
“By understanding the traits that lead to optimized litter performance, we aim to deliver enhanced efficiency at the commercial level.
“The ultimate goal of our research is to produce actionable results that can contribute to a more sustainable industry.”
Hypor is a division of Hendrix Genetics, a global livestock and poultry genetics company with head offices in the Netherlands. •
— By Jim Romahn
Pork Exporters to China Catch a Break
Canadian pork exporters are catching a break for sales to China.
It began January 8th, China will no longer require imports to be tested for COVID-19.
It will also no longer require all imported chilled and frozen foods to enter centralised warehouses for disinfection and testing before they reach the domestic market.
The dropping of measures follows a similar announcement from the customs authority on recently that it will stop testing cold-chain food arriving at the country’s ports.
“This policy means we will have much lower cost and risk on both product storage and transportation,” said a Beijing-based meat importer that buys beef and pork. •
— By Jim Romahn
Researcher Offers a Way to Make More Money From Pork
Dr. Manuel Juarez has developed technology that enables meat packers to characterize pork cuts so they can be sold to the most profitable markets.
Juarez, who is a livestock phenomics scientist at the federal agriculture department’s research station at Lacombe, Alta., headed a multi-institutional team that worked on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc.
New technology tools will enable the classification of the primal pork cuts based on quality and end use characteristics, the team said.
Juarez said these technologies range from very low to very high tech but they all need to be applicable to commercial conditions, they have to be user friendly and they all need to have a minimum level of accuracy.
The approaches and the technologies are going to be different for the different defects or quality characteristics but the way we are developing all of these systems in general is quite similar, he said.
“We work with the packers. We identify what we are doing today in terms of classifying for these attributes. We discuss with them also how that can be enhanced, if there is value in doing so because in some cases classification may not be worth any change.
“From there we come up with different concepts, with different prototypes, we test them at the research level to start with. We have our own abattoir and animals here at Lacombe so we start developing some of these prototypes and testing them on site,” he said.
“After that we bring in meat from commercial packers, we test the meat in our lab with these commercial primals.
“From there we start testing them in the actual commercial plants, either by us going to the plant or, during COVID-19, most likely sending the equipment to our collaborators and they can test it,” he said. •
— By Jim Romahn
DNA Analysis Improve Strep Suis Control
Using DNA analysis improves the effectiveness of home-made (autogenous) vaccines against strep suis in hog operations, says Dr. Matheus Costa of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.
The technology can identify different strains of strep suis that can be infecting pigs in different barns of the same farm or even different parts of large barns.
“It will change the way that we understand the epidemiology of Streptococcus suis so we’ll know if there are any differences between barns, within barns,” Dr. Costa said.
“We’ll be able to control when there’s a new introduction in a barn that could be associated with a flareup of Streptococcus suis disease and it will also influence the way we choose strains to be included in autogenous vaccines and, who knows, in a potential future a universal vaccine as well.”
The technology is known as MLST.
Dr. Costa is also an adjunct professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. •
— By Jim Romahn
Rabobank to Lend to Canadian Farmers
Rabobank has announced it will be offering loans to Canadian farmers.
It set up an office in Toronto in 1997, lending to businesses in the agriculture and food sector.
Roxane Lieverse will head its Canada Agricultural Banking.
“We are excited to offer financial solutions directly to Canadian agricultural producers,” said Paul Beiboer, chief executive officer for Rabobank North America.
“With 25 years of experience in the Canadian food and agriculture sector, we’ve gained a deep understanding of the marketplace and how Rabobank can best serve Canada’s leading growers.”
Robobank Canada will offer innovative financing, risk management, and partnership solutions specifically designed to address the complex needs of agricultural producers today, he said.
Rabobank’s head offices are in Utrecht, the Netherlands. •
— By Jim Romahn
Needle-free Injection for Pork Producers
Needle-free injection systems are gaining popularity in the hog industry.
They eliminate the problem of broken needles that contaminate hog carcasses and are a challenge for pork packers, they eliminate needle-carried cross contamination of diseases such as PRRS and they improve safety because workers aren’t accidentally stuck by needles.
The device settings typically control the delivery depth so that the medication or vaccine can be delivered into the intradermal, subcutaneous or intramuscular tissue.
Intramuscular delivery is most common, although some needle-free devices are specifically engineered to deliver a small dose of vaccine into intradermal tissue.
The dose volume may be either fixed or adjustable, depending on the type of device.
Some needle-free devices can inject large animals such as finishers, sows, and boars, while other needle-free devices are specifically designed to inject younger pigs.
They are most commonly used in sow barns. Some hog farmers have completely eliminated needles. •
— By Jim Romahn
Brits Preserve Rare Pig Breed
The findings of a unique genomic study by the Scotland Rural University is lifting hope that more will be done to save the rare Lop breed of pigs.
The study, the first of its kind for any United Kingdom (UK) pig breed, has identified unique genetic markers for the Lop breed which has been reduced to an effective breeding population of about 40 to 45 hogs.
While there is genetic diversity within the breed, there is also a high level of genomic inbreeding, the study revealed.
The findings reinforce the need for robust measures to tackle in-breeding and prevent any further decrease in breeding population, the researchers said.
Originating in the West Country, the Lop – a white pig with distinctive lop ears that touch the end of its nose – is one of the rarest native breeds of pig in the UK.
The genome study was commissioned by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in conjunction with the British Lop Pig Society.
Hair samples collected from 190 individual pigs on 40 farms, constituting a valid cross section of the current breeding population, were analysed by experts at Scotland Rural University to derive genome-wide genotypes for each pig. •
— By Jim Romahn
Boar Semen Can be a Transmission Route for ASF
African Swine Fever virus (ASFv) is capable of transmitting in boar semen, via the route of artificial insemination (AI) to gilts and embryonic piglets. That was the outcome of joint German-US research.
The study was published late 2022 in the peer-reviewed scientific title Pathogens. Researchers from the German Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut teamed up with animal health scientists in Germany and the United States to figure out whether or not AI could be a method of transmission of the virus. •
— Source Pig Progress
