A lot of recent research has highlighted the effects of having beneficial bacteria colonize the gut in young piglets. The difficult issue is finding a way to keep the population of beneficial bacteria high, while reducing the amount of harmful bacteria. In this episode Kayla Law shares her research with me, Clayton Chastain, about different disinfection methods in sow gestation crates measuring the resulting effects in growth performance and gut microbial colonization in the piglet.

Meet t...

Managing a sow herd is arguably the most complex aspect of swine production to manage. Each sow needs individualized attention to maximize performance and rebreeding success. In today’s talk, Dr. Laura Greiner and Stephen Hall discuss different management strategies and practices that can help get the most out of our sows and our employees.

What you will learn:

1. Retention rates within sow herds

2. Gilt longevity

3. Tolerance in rebreeding failures

4. Key points

Meet the guest: Ste...

Weaning is arguably the most important transition in a pigs life, and is associated with poor growth, increased incidence of infection, and increased stress. Due to this, researchers are continuously looking for potential ways to modify the pig’s diet to increase gut health and immunity. In this episode, Dr. Katie Summers shares some of her work with the USDA, in which they identified and isolated a fungus from the pig’s gut, Kazachstania slooffiae, which may prove beneficial as a feed additive ...

Hi there - There is not only one right way to effectively run a swine farm, and no country in the world has all the right answers. Many countries excel in some aspects, but lack in others. In today’s talk with Dr. Laura Greiner, Dr. Roger Campbell discusses different pork production practices around the world, and what he thinks needs to change in the US to improve certain aspects of swine production.

What you will learn:

1. The most significant issues in the swine industry for the next...

E. coli has been an issue in several nurseries across the United States. Scours, death loss, and poor gain have all been issues that producers with affected herds have had to deal with. In today’s roundtable talk, Dr. Dean Boyd, Dr. Ken Mooney, and Dr. Kathryn Price, all discuss different methods for identifying the source of infection as well as potential nutritional solutions to help ameliorate the negative effects caused by E. coli infection in nursery barns.

   What you'll learn:

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The microbiome of pigs has been an area of study that has gained popularity over the last several decades. Intestinal health and gut inflammation are problems that we sometimes see in the industry. In today’ talk with Clayton Chastain, Dr. Sung Woo Kim shares his research over the last several years highlighting his work with intestinal health biomarkers and how these biomarkers might help identify problems with a pig’s intestinal health so that we may be able to find a solution.

Meet the...

Disease prevention is a very important aspect of successful swine management but sometimes, no matter how good your biosecurity is, diseases find a way to infect the herd. This is why it is helpful to have effective plans in place to minimize the damage done. In today’s talk Dr. Greiner, Dr. Gustavo Machado discusses how swine disease models work, what they will look like in the future, and how they can be effective to prepare for diseases such as ASF infecting our swine herds.

What you ...