With the high price of pig feed these days, anything that lowers your cost is easy to swallow. 

Science is constantly seeking new ways to do that, and a recent study found that pulses, especially faba bean, could help trim the expense.

Pulse power

In a bid to diversify energy and protein for pig diets, University of Alberta researchers have been looking at increasing the inclusion of locally grown pulses in feed. Apart from reducing feed cost, there are a number of agronomic and sustainability benefits to growing pulses. In addition to fixing atmospheric nitrogen (N) in symbiosis with root bacteria, pulses aid in diversifying soil microbial populations and nutrient uptake. If that’s not enough, they also break pest and disease cycles in yearly crop rotation with cereal grains and oilseeds.

This study looked at the potential for faba beans, which offer greater yield compared to field peas, fewer inputs in relation to other crops, and a lower carbon footprint than sourcing animal forms of protein.

However, the inclusion of faba beans in swine diets has been limited by its content of antinutritional factors like tannins and vicine and convicine. Antinutritional factors are components in food that can reduce nutrient use or feed intake. In response, researchers have found solutions through this study by identifying more suitable faba bean cultivars for producers.

Faba takes flight

When faba beans were first introduced to Western Canada about 20 years ago, their high tannin content served as a double-edged sword. The tannins helped guard the crop from early frost damage in the fall, but they gave the beans a bitter taste, rendering them of limited value for inclusion in pig diets. To improve their feed potential, a new white-flowered cultivar named Snowbird was introduced. While its lower tannin level improved feed potential, that came at the expense of reduced protection against early frost.

In a nutshell (or bean pod), the dilemma was this: How could science achieve the best of both worlds for producers, rendering the beans effective as a crop and a feed source? For a solution, crop researchers stopped short of eliminating tannins, breeding cultivars with moderate levels that retain frost protection while improving digestibility of the bean. Though producers also receive low tannin levels with Snowbird, they lose frost protection in the process. In the course of this study, University of Alberta researchers found that faba bean cultivars with moderate amounts of tannin could still be included in pig diets, provided that the cultivar was also low in vicine and convicine – the anti-nutritional factors. This was a notable breakthrough for producers, as it meant they could reduce their risk of frost damage while growing faba bean for both food and feed without harmful effects.

It pays to be picky

To maximize the benefit of adding faba beans to a rotation, it’s important to do your homework before choosing the best variety for your farm. Among faba bean cultivars with moderate tannin content, researchers found Fabelle to be a top choice for feed intake and weight gain. Across cultivars, variations in dietary fiber and starch content contribute to differences in dry matter, energy digestibility and growth performance of pigs – which can all impact the bottom line. On the other hand, while ensuring that a cultivar will benefit your pigs is obviously paramount, this also needs to be weighed against yield impacts from reduced frost protection.

Having established the viability of faba beans in reducing feed cost, scientists on this study feel that getting that message to the end user is critical. For the findings to be adopted, pig producers must be convinced that pulse grains like faba bean are cost effective.  By replacing expensive soybean meal with the less costly faba bean as a protein source, while maintaining growth performance, producers can reduce feed cost per unit of growth.

Digesting the results

Though researchers found that the antinutritional factors in faba beans may slightly reduce a pig’s ability to digest nutrients, this should not hamper growth if producers consider that fact when formulating diets. For feeding pigs, medium levels of tannins in faba bean are acceptable, provided that vicine and convicine levels are limited.

This study was led by Dr. Eduardo Beltranena, pork research scientist at the University of Alberta. In the barn and lab, graduate student Protus Nyende did the legwork, ensuring that all trials were completed accurately. The project was supported with funding from Swine Innovation Porc and Alberta Pork, which was provided to Dr. Ruurd Zijlstra.

As its next order of business, the team plans to delve deeper into characterizing faba bean cultivars and gaining a better picture of what is happening with this ingredient in western Canada. Wherever that may take them, they know their work to date should take a bite out of producer costs.

Now THAT’S food for thought.

To a non-scientist, the notion of “good bacteria” is like the idea of a friendly monster - it seems counterintuitive or even contradictory at first glance. 

In fact, the bodies of pigs and people contain more helpful bacteria than the bad kind, especially in the gut. Since good bacteria, also known as probiotics, play a critical role in keeping pigs healthy and producers above water, researchers ran a study to better understand both types of bacteria.

Probiotics offer a number of benefits for pigs, such as improved digestion, protection from pathogens and the production of nutrients and antibodies. These advantages are especially valuable for peri- and post-weaning pigs, as they are often exposed to diseases like E. coli and rotavirus, a highly contagious infection that causes diarrhea and dehydration. At present, the main means of combating these conditions on farm are vaccination, zinc supplements and the inclusion of antimicrobials in feed; but all three have limitations.

Good news, meet bad news

For their part, antimicrobials have sparked a public health concern as more and more infections show resistance to these drugs. They also represent another cost to producers and could render future pathogens harder to treat.

While vaccination has its place in the barn, it is less effective with younger pigs, as their immune system is not yet properly developed to respond to vaccines.

As for zinc, its negative impact on the environment has been well documented, leading some countries to ban its use with pigs, and Canada may soon follow suit. In the eyes of scientists on this project, the best alternative to these measures are probiotics. Previous research has shown that piglets who are not exposed to good bacteria early on can be highly susceptible to disease. With the addition of probiotics to swine diets, like Lactobacillus that is also found in yogurt, the influx of good bacteria in the gut works to crowd out the bad ones. Lactobacillus is a probiotic that restores the balance of good bacteria in the intestine that may be disrupted after the application of antibiotics or due to intestinal infections.

A gutsy effort

In their quest to learn more about bacteria as it relates to pig health, scientists explored the composition of the gut microbiota, which comprises thousands of bacteria. One finding of interest is that the microbiota changes as pigs age. At birth, piglets have no bacteria in the gut, but begin to acquire them when exposed to the sow during farrowing. Because the bacteria needed to digest liquids and solids are different, the microbiota changes again when piglets move from a liquid milk diet to solid food after weaning.

Researchers also examined the relationship between the gut microbiota and growth performance, and found that pigs of a certain microbiota enterotype showed better growth and less incidence of diarrhea. An enterotype is a classification of living organisms based on the bacterial composition of the gut’s microbiome.

Finally, the team sought a connection linking the microbiota and genetics, noting that some bacteria is unable to survive in the pig’s gut due to a genetic variation in the animal.

Knowledge is powerful

When it comes to pigs, health and bacteria, the more science knows, the more it can aid producers. With antimicrobials being slowly phased out, industry needs an alternative to keep pigs thriving in the face of a disease challenge, and probiotics show the best potential. Many pharmaceutical companies have expressed interest in developing probiotics. To support these efforts, science must gather as much knowledge as possible, such as how to distinguish good and bad bacteria in the gut.

If the work from this study leads to a new probiotic that can be commercialized and used by producers, it could amount to a triple win: healthier pigs, a more productive swine industry, and less reliance on antimicrobial use in animals.  

To ensure success for researchers, collaboration was critical. They received funding from Swine Innovation Porc (SIP), Cargill Limited, and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

The research team included Dr. Vahab Farzan, Dr. Brandon Lillie, Dr. Khurram Nadeem, and graduate student Madison Arsenal from University of Guelph, as well as Dr. Ehsan Khafipour from Cargill Inc.

In the years ahead, scientists envision a time when they pinpoint the specific bacteria that are associated with better performance and health, and use them to produce effective probiotics for pigs. If they can also identify the genetic markers for these traits, that information could be shared with swine breeding farms for the betterment of their herds.

In a sector where things aren’t always cut and dried, there is at least one certainty: Piglets need milk, and an adequate supply is crucial for their development. 

Unfortunately, sows don’t produce sufficient milk to optimize piglet growth. As well, the introduction of hyperprolific sow lines (ones that often give birth to more piglets than their functional teats) has made the problem greater by increasing litter size. As a result, there is less milk available per piglet, leading to lower weaning weights.

With sufficient milk in their system, piglets will be heavier at weaning, have greater vigor and be more resistant to disease challenges. They will also require fewer days to reach market weight, something producers currently address with creep feeding (providing a solid diet to piglets while they are suckling the sow, preparing their digestive system for weaning). Though creep feeding can be effective, it is also expensive, so science went in search of a more viable option.

Got Milk?

Taking up the challenge was Dr. Chantal Farmer, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Sherbrooke, Quebec. To address the milk shortage, Dr. Farmer sought to increase milk yield through enhanced mammary development, taking a multi-pronged approach:

Feeding fiber

With gilts growing faster these days, they often encounter leg issues, prompting some producers to slow that growth by restricting feed intake. This can be problematic, as Dr. Farmer had previously shown that a feed reduction of 20% between day 90 and puberty inhibits mammary development. With that in mind, she teamed up with Dr. Lee-Anne Huber at the University of Guelph. 

They found that either using that same 20% decrease in feed intake or feeding an ad libitum diet (as much as the pig wants) with 25% more fiber could have a similar effect. Both approaches will reduce the growth rate of current gilt lines (that consume more feed compared with older lines) without lowering milk yield.

Need lysine? Try soybean

In the last third of gestation, mammary development is very rapid; however, there seems to be an underestimate of the recommendation for the dietary amino acid lysine during that crucial time. 

By putting more soybean meal in feed, researchers managed to boost lysine levels by 40%, which increased the amount of milk synthesizing tissue in the mammary gland by 40% as well. Like farmers, scientists can’t stand still, so they will look to further benefit producers down the road by testing the lysine effect on multi-parity sows as well.

Prolactin is pro-milk

Prolactin is a hormone that plays a critical role in enabling mammals to produce milk. In the past, the hormone has been injected to raise prolactin levels in sows and increase milk yield. Through this study, researchers examined the potential for a drug called domperidone. This drug helps the body increase its own production of prolactin, and is even used by women who can’t supply enough breast milk after giving birth. With a veterinary prescription for use with sows, domperidone can be added to feed to stimulate prolactin, replacing the need for hormone injections. 

As well, when the project team tested the drug that aids pigs in synthesizing more prolactin, they saw an average increase of 5.6% in body weight for piglets at day 22.

As with much in life, timing is critical for increasing prolactin. Prior to puberty, the gilt’s physiology is not equipped to reap the benefits from the drug; for best results, it needs to be incorporated in the diet during lactation.

Though all aspects of the study hold promise, the raising of recommended lysine levels in the gestation diet may be most critical. At present, some in the industry still assume that replacement gilts can be fed like market pigs, and that is simply not the case.

Hungry for More

Ultimately, this study was the product of cooperation. While Dr. Farmer provided expertise in swine lactation biology, Dr. Huber brought her extensive knowledge of swine nutrition. Work was done at both the University of Guelph and Universite De Sherbrooke, providing opportunities for new graduate students at these institutions.

Building on this study, researchers want to answer a key question related to the beneficial effect of an increase in soybean meal on mammary development of gilts in late gestation: Is that benefit really due to the increase in lysine, or to other components of the soybean meal?

With the high cost of production these days, anything that stimulates the mammary system should be a stimulating topic for years to come.

Clearly, the only thing better than a win-win for the pork sector is a win-win-win. 

As feed costs consume a growing portion of producer budgets, the challenge for industry is to maintain pig performance while ensuring the profitability and sustainability of pork production. Doing so can be especially hard in the post weaning period, a critical stage for pig development. In talking with industry, researchers pinpointed a number of stressors that impact post weaning pigs, such as the removal of antibiotics and the possible withdrawal of animal based proteins from the diet. In response, science set out to develop effective feeding strategies for weaned pigs that would maximize profits, reduce reliance on in-feed antibiotics and improve robustness.

Let’s get growing

A prime focus for achieving these goals was amino acids and their potential for boosting health and growth in post weaning pigs without breaking the bank on feed. In turn, this could reduce the industry’s reliance on antibiotics by by using nutrition to support immune function, disease resilience and growth. For both the pork sector and the general public, reducing the need for antibiotics is a top priority, which makes it top of mind for science as well.

As well, researchers sought chemical and biological tools to detoxify vomitoxin, a mycotoxin that is most common in grains like wheat, barley, oats, rye and corn. These approaches could reduce the effects of DON on feed intake, pig health and growth.

In the course of their study, the team also aimed to maximize the level of pulse grains in diets in order to reduce feed expense and improve gut health.

Pigs, plants and profit

Traditional post weaning diets usually feature animal-based protein sources such as whey and fish meal, as they are seen to be the best option for reducing the stress of weaning. These regimens are highly complex and easy to digest, but that comes at great cost to producers. Some studies, however, have suggested that such diets, when compared to plant-based options, do not enhance growth performance overall from the nursery to market weight hogs.

At the same time, there is evidence that plant-based diets may render pigs more vulnerable to disease compared to the animal-based route. This sort of “good news, bad news” scenario underscores the need for continued research on the pros and cons of various feed regimes.

Just add amino acids

For this study, researchers addressed the downside of plant-based meals by including a mixture of functional amino acids at 120 per cent of NRC recommendations (Nutrient Requirements of Swine). Functional amino acids govern vital metabolic pathways to enhance development and health and are key components of many immune system proteins. Previous studies have shown that this approach boosts growth and immunity of pigs facing a disease challenge such as Salmonella.

Pick your path

Based on this project, producers now have options. In some operations, the animal-based diet may be preferable for its ability to improve pig health. In other cases, switching to plant-based meals could help to offset rising feed prices and keep more dollars in producer pockets. For those choosing the latter approach, supplementing diets with the functional amino acids methionine, threonine and tryptophan in amounts that exceed current industry levels can help guard against the negative impact of plant-based strategies on disease resistance. Those amino acids become even more effective in safeguarding pig health the further out they are used from a disease challenge.

All told, the study covered a lot of ground, thanks to strong support from industry, government and academia. Swine Innovation Porc (SIP), the Government of Saskatchewan and the Government of Canada under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership participated as funding partners. The research itself was driven by co-leaders Dr. Daniel Columbus, research scientist and adjunct professor at the Prairie Swine Centre, University of Saskatchewan, and Dr. Martin Nyachoti, professor, Department of Animal Science at the University of Manitoba.

Just as many victories in life stem from making the right moves at the right time, scientists feel the same can be said for success in pork production. While the wrong decisions with post-weaning pigs may harm their performance down the road, choosing wisely will lower costs and antibiotic use, raise performance levels and improve the public image of the entire pork sector.

“Performing pigs” might sound like entertainment, but maximizing pig performance is serious business for producers. 

Just as a healthy diet keeps people going strong, the right amount of vitamins and minerals in pig feed can be the difference between profit and loss in the pork sector. Towards that end, researchers went to work on micronutrient strategies to maximize robustness and performance for pre- and post-weaning piglets.

Science has known for years that piglets are prone to iron deficiency. Although they are born with reasonable iron levels, they can begin to run low on this mineral by day 3, and will become anemic by weaning if they aren’t given iron supplements. So what happens with other trace minerals and vitamins?

Curious copper

Copper is an essential mineral for pigs, as it improves growth performance and feed conversion rate, especially in young pigs. While the National Research Council recommends 6-10 ppm (parts per million) in the diet of postweaning pigs, the industry standard in Canada is 130 ppm on average. Through blood sampling in a previous study, researchers determined that copper levels decreased in the post-weaning period to very low values usually found at birth, even in animals given large amounts of copper. In spite of providing pigs with up to 20 times the suggested amount, they still emerged as copper deficient three weeks after weaning.

The results with copper prompted a highly scientific question: “What the heck happened?”

Let’s think about zinc

In search of an answer, scientists then added zinc to the mix, which is still used in high doses to prevent diarrhea in pigs in Canada. Experimenting with different levels of copper sulfate and zinc oxide supplementation, they found that large amounts of zinc (3000 ppm) stimulated an enzyme that trapped copper in the intestinal tissue. By not allowing copper to reach its intended destination of the liver and serum (the fluid component of blood), this enzyme caused pigs to become copper deficient.

Ironing out some issues

Another crucial mineral for pigs is iron, as it is essential for optimal health and growth. In spite of iron supplementation in the first week of life, recent research shows that piglets may be iron-deficient at weaning. Although post-weaning diets are rich in iron, again, high levels of zinc oxide proved problematic, impairing the building up of iron reserves in the liver.

From hazard to helpful

By exploring the effects of various mineral levels on piglets, researchers have begun homing in on the ideal supplement regimen to promote growth and performance. This quest is vital in light of developments in the industry. In 2021, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) consulted with the pork sector to better understand the effects of zinc and copper and propose new levels of supplementation with these minerals. Of particular concern to the CFIA is that high levels of zinc can be harmful to the environment when it is excreted in manure and spread on farmers’ fields. This may lead to a high concentration of zinc in the soil will remain for up to 50 years before fully dispersing, preventing crops from growing properly in that field. Zinc can also be a public health concern, as it stimulates the expression of some genes in bacteria that make them more resistant to antibiotics.

In 2022, the European Union banned the use of high zinc levels for pigs, and Canada appears headed in the same direction. The latest recommendation from the CFIA is to lower zinc limits from 3000 ppm to 300 ppm. Once this change becomes mandatory, producers will have lost two of their greatest weapons for preserving pig health: antibiotics and zinc oxide. As farmers try and adapt to new regulations, studies like this are crucial to properly supplementing with minerals such as zinc and copper. From a scientific standpoint, if you don’t know what happens to pigs when given both high and low levels of minerals, how can you properly adjust feed to meet the new standards without compromising piglet health and growth?

Maintaining your balance

Because of the negative interactions between zinc and copper, a low dietary zinc-to-copper ratio may improve the absorption and utilization of both minerals. However, this study also showed that low levels of both copper (6 ppm) and zinc (100 ppm) appear not to fulfil the piglets’ requirements for these minerals during the first weeks post-weaning. That shortfall points to the need for a better understanding of zinc and copper nutrition for post-weaning piglets.

Ultimately, a balanced, holistic approach, considering pig health, nutrition, performance and the environment, will enable the animals to express their full potential while safeguarding humans and the planet.

Backed by funding from Swine Innovation Porc, this study drew on expertise from several organizations. These included DSM Animal Nutrition & Health, Lallemand Animal Nutrition, Agri-Marché, the Deschambault Animal Science Research Centre (CRSAD) and Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).

As always, a number of scientists brought their knowledge to the project: Drs. Jérôme Lapointe, Guylaine Talbot, Danyel Bueno Dalto, Jacques Matte (research scientist – retired) and Martin Lessard (research scientist – retired), all with AAFC in Sherbrooke, Quebec; Dr. Frédéric Guay, professor, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences - Department of Animal Sciences at Université Laval; and Yan Martel-Kennes with (CRSAD).

Looking ahead, the researchers will further study the interaction between zinc and copper sources, both organic and inorganic, and examine the effects of mixing, such as inorganic zinc and organic copper, and vice versa. They will also experiment with different supplementation timings, as well as various delivery methods, such as through drinking water, to see if that increases absorption and reduces the negative interactions between minerals.

It may seem beyond our grasp, but making pigs more resistant to disease, while reducing the use of antibiotics, is well within reach. 

Swine diseases associated with gut bacteria are regarded as the top risk factors for disrupting normal pork production, and this is especially true for weanling pigs. Weanlings often experience gut disruption brought on by enteric diseases (infections occurring in the gastrointestinal system), poor digestion of nutrients or a shortage of alkaline phosphatase (AP), an enzyme in the gut that helps maintain the gut micro-environment.

Gut Reaction

In response to these pig health issues, a research team led by Dr. Ming Fan, University of Guelph, worked on enhancing AP efficiency. That may sound complex, but the end goal was simple: a healthier gut, leading to healthier pigs that would grow faster without the burden of infectious disease. This would also limit the demand for antibiotics, reducing the threat that antimicrobial resistance in the pork sector poses to public health.

In recent years, scientists have discovered the critical role of APs in maintaining gut health, thereby protecting both pigs and people from the toxins that are produced by pathogenic microbes in the gut. These toxins frequently trigger disease, and while swine are akin to humans physiologically, there is a key difference in the effectiveness of APs between the two. In the human body, APs perform like a finely tuned sports car, doing their job smoothly as they coat our cells and guard them from invaders. By contrast, in weanling pigs, their own APs are more like clunkers, often breaking down and failing to thwart these intruders.

Fine Tuning Feeds for Health

In the interests of giving pig APs a “tune up”, researchers sought to develop feed additives. These would take the form of external AP enzymes that are not naturally produced by the body but could be added to pig diets to fortify their gut response. After much study, scientists created an enzyme that shows great potential in advancing the pig gut micro-environment and helping the animal to resist disease. 

Of course, as with most great discoveries, there is still one large mountain to climb before it leads to black ink for industry: red tape. Because the enzyme is a microbial product, it is highly regulated. Prior to making it available for use by producers, much data is needed to ensure the product is safe, effective and environmentally friendly. As part of the registration process, the federal government must also confirm that its biological working mechanisms are clearly revealed as a novel microbial product, since nobody else has developed and commercialized a similar product in the past.

From Health to Wealth

Once the team secures government approval, the newly developed enzyme could become a valuable new tool for industry. The product could support faster and more efficient growth for pigs, while precluding the need for antibiotics to promote health. Though primarily targeting weanling pigs, as swine is more vulnerable when younger, this enzyme may also aid feeder pigs and sows in a similar manner.

Though antibiotics have been a powerful weapon for decades in the fight against human and animal diseases, the landscape has clearly shifted. Today, the use of such drugs is under increasing scrutiny in the eyes of the public and faces growing concerns about antimicrobial resistance. These circumstances enhance the appeal of feed additives, like AP enzymes that strengthen natural immune defenses while developing treatments that balance the health of people, animals and the environment.

Building a Path from Lab to Barn

Against that backdrop, a new weapon was required to aid pigs and producers, and finding it was the ultimate team effort. Scientists relied on financial support from industry partners like Ontario Pork, as well as cluster funding from research bodies including Swine Innovation Porc (SIP) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Apart from the dollars, this “made in Canada” solution relied heavily on lab technology at the University of Guelph and the brain power of researchers, associates and students.  

In the journey from lab to barn, however, several steps remain. Now that the essential research and efficacy testing is complete, the team must work on technology transfer to universities, businesses and governments. This process helps ensure that the scientific and technological developments from the project are available to a wider range of users, who can then help develop them further. From there, it is on to intellectual property protection, government approval and, ideally, commercialization of the product.

As a course of further study, scientists hope to explore the effects on soil fertility of applying manure from pigs who consume this enzyme. They also want to look more closely at the possible benefits of the enzyme in sow diets.

If herding cats is the ultimate challenge, managing sows is a close second. This is especially true with the advent of group housing and its unique dynamics. 

In such systems, proper management is key to minimizing stress for sows, thereby boosting sow reproductive performance and piglet development. Given the stakes for producers, scientists are working hard to find the best approach.

In exploring the pros and cons of different group management systems, Canadian researchers focused on dynamic versus static grouping and compared early and late mixing of sows. With the dynamic mixing approach, multiple breeding groups are housed together in each pen. As small groups of sows are moved out to be farrowed, new groups of recently mated sows join the pen.

In static groups, each pen houses only one breeding group of sows. The animals are only mixed at the start of gestation, and no sows can be brought in for replacement if a sow is removed. The choice to implement dynamic or static housing can have big impacts for barn design.

Mix and mingle

Dynamic mixing is a popular choice for producers, allowing use of new technology and providing individual feeding for sows. But researchers are concerned that there is potential for more conflict, aggression and stress as groups of sows move in and out of the pen. When it comes to sows, there is “mixing aggression” and “ongoing aggression”. Researchers were concerned that ongoing aggression in dynamic groups would be a problem. What they found was that mixing aggression, which happens only once at the beginning of gestation, was reduced in dynamic groups because there were fewer new group members. At the same time, they found that ongoing aggression resulted in more lesions in dynamic groups throughout gestation, but it was not enough to impact their production. This suggests that mixing aggression is more important than ongoing aggression in terms of the impact on reproduction.

Late mixing (after 28 days of gestation) is also largely favoured over early mixing, but this may not be sustainable given the concern shown by consumers. As pressure grows from the public to abolish month-long stays in gestation stalls, researchers are examining early mixing more closely as a viable option.

Interestingly, this study found less aggression in dynamic systems over static ones (both mixed early). In the former, aggression levels were low when each small group was added, compared to one large mixing event for the static housed sows, which occurred in early pregnancy.  The production results were also surprising: Dynamic sows had the highest farrowing rate over static sows, and even over a control group of late mixed sows.  There is not a clear winner between static and dynamic; both systems are popular and will continue to be so. They require very different approaches, so industry must be more aware of those differences to fine tune management strategies.

Social status is important, because if a system is not running well, it is always the subordinate sows who get the short end of the stick, and it is usually the younger/smaller animals that are subordinate.

With genetics, the swine industry needs to shift the genetic focus away from producing more piglets and onto finding less aggressive sows that are well built and robust to function well in group housing.

Climbing the Social Ladder

Another important factor influencing a sow’s reproductive performance was social status within the pen. Researchers determined each sow’s rank within the group as dominant, intermediate or subordinate based on a feed competition test. A sow’s rank played a large role in setting their stress level, which in turn affected piglet behavior and physiology. The exact connection is not yet clear, but scientists hope to learn more as they review the data.

As part of the project, researchers also examined sow mortality in the wake of growing death losses on farm. Using a survey and follow up visits that covered 104 herds, they found higher mortality in large herds (3,000 or more) versus small, and in group gestation versus stalls. Scientists were especially concerned that the majority of death losses in group gestation involved younger sows. Apart from the animal welfare implications, early culling is an economic blow for the business. Most producers can attest that sows who manage fewer than three parities don’t even cover their replacement cost.

Finding genes that fit

These mortality findings are critical for industry going forward. The increase in lameness should spawn a greater focus on all aspects of gilt development, and genetics companies could prioritize conformation (functional legs and feet) and a calmer temperament that is less prone to aggression. Greater robustness traits would be beneficial as well, making sows more durable in group systems as they navigate concrete floors and interact with their pen mates.

Addressing the mortality issue will take a combined effort from researchers and producers. It is vital that worker training and compliance on farm be more consistent, and that staff use the same definitions between farms and within the same operation. What constitutes “culled”, “euthanized” and “died on farm”? For their part, the project team plans to have recommendations for workers soon on what to record.   

Aiding in this study was Dr. Yolande Seddon, assistant professor, Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine. At the same time, Dr. Nicolas Devillers, research scientist in pig behaviour and welfare at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), advised the team on dynamic mixing. Also of note, Dr. Brian Sullivan, CEO at the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement (CCSI), worked closely with the group on sow mortality.

For the pork sector, the only constant is change, and the move to group sow housing is a prime example. The more producers can learn today about managing group gestation and limiting sow mortality, the better equipped they’ll be to face the future.

Producers are sick of pig diseases, and given their impact on production and performance, who can blame them. 

Two of the worst offenders today are prime examples of disease fallout.