Training, tails and treasure in Pig Progress, issue 2
Training young piglets to eat from an early age is essential to get them through weaning well. That, in short is the philosophy behind a novel strategy that is being applied in a farm in the Netherlands. It is the cover story of the #2 issue of Pig Progress in 2019.
Exactly what they eat prior to weaning, when they start eating that and how it is presented to them all play a role in the success of the strategy, Pig Progress editor Vincent ter Beek found out when he visited Bankers farm, located in the south of the Netherlands. Pages 16-19
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Pig tails – beware of hanging
Hanging pig tails might be an indication for an upcoming tail biting outbreak, something that needs to be tackled as soon as possible. Researchers Helle Pelant Laarman and Vivi Aarestrup Moustsen from the Danish Pig Research Centre SEGES looked into that and found out that providing straw is a good intervention remedy as soon as pig tails start pointing down. Pages 6-7
The Treasure project: New developments in France
Correspondent Philippe Caldier attended this year’s edition of the Swine Research Days (JRP) in Paris France. He learnt new things about the ‘Treasure’ project – an initiative to encourage the development of more sustainable pork value chains. Quite a lot of emphasis was on animal welfare and artificial intelligence, he found. Page 23
Spray-dried porcine plasma is safe
That sentence below is the key message of an article provided by Javier Polo, Lourens Heres and Isabelle D. Kalmar, as members of the EAPA technical committee. In recent months, it has been suggested that African Swine Fever outbreaks might be related to plasma use – but the authors make it crystal clear that with high quality SDPP there is no reason for concern. Page 20
Getting ready for summer with cooling pads
Where some speak about heat stress, a team around Prof Allan Schinckel at Purdue University, USA, in cooperation with USDA-ARS, zoomed in on the development and creation of cooling pads for lactating sows. This nice innovation is explained in the contribution as from page 8.
Interview: Lisbeth Shooter of Zero Zinc
Denmark is getting ready for the Zero Zinc Summit, a one-off event in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss and share ideas how to get piglets through weaning without the usage of zinc oxide or antibiotics. Pig Progress editor Vincent ter Beek travelled to Denmark to know all about this. Pages 10-12
Caught in a pic: The year of the pig
Everywhere in the Chinese world, the arrival of year of the pig was celebrated in February. We look back briefly to this happening in Sydney, Australia. Pages 14-15
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Columns: Fortress Farm design & a new me
On page 26, in her monthly column, Dr Casey Bradley discusses her new professional goals for 2019 – a different cup of tea that just some new year’s solutions! Finally, John Gadd presents his design of the ‘Fortress Farm’ – probably one of the best ways to be sure that ASF stays away from a pig farm. Page 13
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