🇧🇷🇨🇳 Actually, it's just a health problem… Due to medical reasons, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has postponed a high-profile trip to China until the viral transmission cycle ends.
• The meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which will now be rescheduled, was a significant effort by the new leftist president to enhance relations with Brazil's largest trading partner – and greatest international pork consumer, of course! Read this for more.
🇵🇱🧑🌾 A group of Polish business unions and associations sent an open letter to the Polish Agricultural Minister urging the rejection of a controversial draft decree under which veterinary rules regarding African Swine Fever (ASF) in Poland are to be eased for backyard farms that house up to ten pigs.
• While backyard farmers have long backed these changes, arguing they could help several thousands of herds across the country, the authors of the letter warn that the new reform could destro...
🇷🇺 The Russian veterinary body Rosselhoznadzor registered a series of African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks in Siberia – including the first outbreak in the village of Gorodok, which led to the culling of the village’s entire pig population, as well as the destruction of their carcasses, residues, and farm structure.
⚠️ Ironically enough, we can say this is only the tip of the iceberg… Although Siberia remained relatively safe in terms of ASF in the past few years, cases have been popping up. Al...
💡 The antimicrobial properties of fatty acids have been known since the late 1800s – and even though their role in feed applications was previously overlooked in favor of antibiotics, they are now under the spotlight. Particularly, medium chain functional lipids are of special interest due to their broad and varied activities – despite the name "medium", their number of uses is nothing short of extra large!
✅ Medium chain monoglycerides and fatty acids can be antimicrobial, antiviral, antifung...
🦠 In response to public concerns over antibiotic use in livestock production and the potential for antibiotic resistance, a multi-institutional team of scientists in Canada is conducting research aimed at replacing antibiotics with probiotic bacteria to improve pig gut health and combat diarrhea in nursery pigs.
• If the selected probiotics from the research can be employed, they can potentially reduce the use of antibiotics in feed and promote sustainable production. Awesome, right? To le...
🇺🇲🔬 The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) is asking for a second round of proposals for its Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program! The program aims to proactively enhance wean-to-harvest biosecurity, thus helping control the next emerging disease in the US pork industry and improving herd health.
• This second round of research is seeking novel tools for five targeted areas: personnel biocontainment and bioexclusion, mortality management, truck wash efficiency, alternatives to fixed tr...
Many factors can cause sow prolapse, including genetic and non-genetic aspects. The issue can increase sow and preweaning mortality, as well as loss of unborn piglets, all of which affect profits and production. In the episode, Jared Harshman discusses the pilot study he has worked on that evaluates the incidence of prolapse in sows and aims to determine its causes and risk factors. The first part of this two-episode series focuses on mineral and inflammatory differences between prolapsed and no...