On September 28-30, the city of Prague hosted a meeting among the highest veterinary authorities in the EU. The main topic? The current issue of African swine fever (ASF).

• Currently, 14 European countries have reported the presence of ASF within their borders, which leads to significant financial costs and economic losses.

🤝 During the presentations, representatives of ASF affected countries shared with their counterparts their experiences and key strategies in the control and eradic...

Pelleting swine feed increases its temperature, which has made people worry about causing the Maillard reaction and thus, making the amino acids less digestible. Several studies in the past have evaluated the pelleting process and shown that this reaction is not likely to occur, but what if more reducing sugars were added? In this episode, I talk to Dr. Kara Dunmire about her search for an answer to that question by testing the availability of amino acids in swine diets with high levels of reduc...

Streptococcus suis is present in almost all pigs and is considered endemic in all countries with an extensive swine industry. However, not all forms of Streptococcus suis in pigs are inherently pathogenic. In today’s episode with Dr. Jessica Santos-Streauslin, we talk about her work studying Streptococcus suis as well as identifying what new work needs to be completed to develop a commercially available vaccine.

Meet the guest:

Dr. Jessica Santos Streauslin is a veterinary Ph.D. stude...

What happens when you switch the grocery store meat case and position ground pork right next to its meat competitors? Greater sales of ground pork! Oh, yeah, ground pork is what the people want!

• Eight states have teamed up with the National Pork Board (NPB) to work with the Hy-Vee grocery store chain and test out adding a ground pork section in the meat case – and the results were impressive: sales were nearly 20% higher!

• So here’s the takeaway: once a product gets more shelf space...

A federal judge sided with the feds on Friday, finding that former Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s rules for inspecting pigs before they are sent to slaughter don’t violate safety protocols.

🧾Cutting to the chase, here’s what happened:

• In 2020, a group of three nonprofits alleged, among other things, that Perdue’s food-safety inspection regulations at pig-slaughtering plants would result in dangerous pork products. 

• Then, the feds filed an opposition and cross-motion for s...

Do you know what Agro-terrorism is? It’s the deliberate introduction of a livestock targeted disease agent into the food chain – typically a tactic that can be used to either generate mass socio-economic disruption or as a form of direct human aggression. 

• In the agriculture community in particular, even though protests might hurt (our poor feelings), they’re allowed. What’s not allowed is stealing pigs, committing an act of violence, etc. 

🛡 Here are some ideas on how you can protec...