Hi Doc - your weekly 9-minute swine health research update is here:

Part of a veterinarian's job is tracking disease outbreaks to identify the probability of their farm coming into contact with certain pathogens so they can best be prepared for any situation that may arise. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Giovani Trevisan and Dr. Daniel Linhares about their collaborative project, which is designed to collect data on swine pathogen outbreaks across the US and to monitor the spread of a multitud...

Hey there - Transitioning the gilt into a successful sow is not always a simple task. They require particular attention and we cant treat them just like any other finishing pig. Similarly, graduate students often need quality education and preparation for their next step in their career. In this episode I talk with Dr. Crystal Levesque about raising the developing gilt as well as how to best prep graduate students to enter the industry.

What you will learn:

1. How do we change the sow

Past studies have shown that increasing stocking density will decrease the performance of the pigs. However, when commercial systems are backed-up due to logistic issues or disruptions in the supply chain, barns may be stocked at a lower floor space allowance to avoid bottlenecks. In this episode, Chloe Hagen returns to talk with me about her study where she increased stocking density while also increasing energy level to see if it can help mitigate the reduction in performance historically seen...

ASF continues to be prevalent internationally and can be an economically devastating disease for pig farmers. The United States has successfully kept the disease out of its borders but it is crucial that we are prepared to handle the situation if it finds its way in. In this episode, I talk with Li Peng about his work in China developing a new farm response strategy that is designed to quickly and effectively respond to an ASF outbreak to safely eliminate any risk of disease spread.

Meet ...

Decreasing swine mortality still tends to be the largest opportunity for farmers to increase overall profitability, which is why it is important that we understand all the factors that play into herd health. Dr. Chris Rademacher and I address this issue in today’s episode and talk about methods that can increase disease preparedness and what is necessary to start your nursery pigs off properly.

What you will learn:

1. Current challenges with nursery pigs

2. Introducing new caretaker...

Piglet mortality continues to be an issue for the swine industry and is one of the worst sources of economic losses in production facilities. Several studies have tried to identify new ways to decrease mortality to save producers money. In this episode, I talk with Kelsey Hammers about her study feeding zinc to sows at different timepoints during gestation to see how it affects piglet mortality. Take a few minutes out of your day to hear the results!

Meet the guest: Kelsey Hammers is a Ph...

We all know the dangers of PRRSV, but how many strains are out there, and how many can you have at a given time? In this episode, I talk with Dr. Daniel Linhares and Dr. Giovani Trevisan about their work performing whole genome sequencing of PRRSV on multiple farms to get a deeper understanding of the current situation of PRRSV and to see how many strains a single farm has circulating at a given time.

Meet the guests: 

Dr. Daniel Linhares is the Roy Schultz Professor of Swine Population M...