Biosecurity is of utmost importance on sow farms, as it plays a critical role in protecting the health and ensuring the productivity of the animals. At the core of the biosecurity practices of every farm is the implementation of strict protocols to control and monitor the movement of people, animals, and equipment. In this episode, Sara Pardall, B.Sc., discusses the challenges and critical points in maintaining biosecurity on sow farms from a practical perspective, as well as the significance of...

Understanding the risk factors associated with feed and feed ingredients in virus transmission is vital in the swine industry. Viral diseases pose a significant threat to swine herds, necessitating effective intervention strategies and robust biosecurity measures. To shed light on these matters, Dr. Laura Greiner talks with Dr. Scott Dee, a renowned expert in swine disease management. He emphasized the importance of feed and its ingredients in disease transmission and highlighted critical priori...

🇫🇷🇮🇹 The Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty of France and the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry of Italy have announced the creation of a technical contact group to fight against the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF). The team will bring together experts from the two countries in animal health, wildlife, and hunting to strengthen cooperation between different regional and national levels. 

• To get more on the French/Italian task force, click here.

🇵🇭 According to the President of the Philippines, the initial local trials of an African Swine Fever (ASF) vaccine have shown promising results! This far, the vaccine seems safe to use, even though it still needs more testing. That means hopes are high that it will soon be available in the country to combat the disease.

• One such vaccine candidate is also close to approval in Vietnam. Check out more about the ASF vaccine here.

🇷🇺🇺🇦 According to the Russian foreign ministry, the country sees no grounds for renewing the Black Sea grain deal. This announcement comes less than two weeks before its expiration date – and it's no surprise. Russia has long threatened to pull out of the agreement, complaining that promises to remove barriers to its own exports of grain and fertilizer haven't been fulfilled.

• Another dealbreaker is that (still according to Russia) the Ukrainian grains were only delivered to well-fed countries...

Not a nice score, huh? Unfortunately, the bad news outnumber the good ones by one. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first: for starters, for the rest of the summer and into fall, the market will have more hogs to digest than expected; the second bit of bad news comes out of California and is called Proposition 12 (set to come into effect on July 1); and the last one is that pig prices continue to edge lower in China – and it doesn't look like things are getting better anytime soon.

Enough ...

🇺🇲🏭 A new study by the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) shows that animal food manufacturing facilities are drivers of economic growth – not only across our national economy, but also in the counties and states where they are located! 

• Other than providing our animals with safe and adequate nutrition while supporting an abundant US food supply, along with uniting plant and animal agriculture, those facilities actually provide economic value to rural and urban communities through indi...