| May 2005,
Vol. 8, No. 5 PEAK OF PERFORMANCE NEWS |
I urge all of our producers to ensure that your records are complete and up-to-date so that refunds of the duties paid can be claimed. This applies to feeder pigs and market hogs as well as sows and boars that were sent for slaughter in the US.
Continued high market hog prices anticipated for 2005 [compare to $1.67/kg dressed average in 2004] may very well help offset losses incurred in 2002/2003 but have not influenced an increase in hog production in North America. The concern in the US by the NPPC is that Canada has not had a decline in its sow herd in the past 17 quarters, regardless of (low) market price signals. Despite losses incurred by producers, who may not have received a benefit from the whole-farm support programs, the NPPC still believes our hog producers are being sufficiently subsidized that production is not being cut. It’s interesting that hog numbers have hardly changed in the past three years in North America whether the prices are high or low.
Trailblazer boars probed at Five Lakes Farms and Bloomsbury Farms in March show excellent leanness and loin depths:
|
Average backfat mm |
Average age |
Estimated lean yield % |
Loin |
|
| Trailblazer boars (35) |
10.3 |
165 |
63.5 |
64.4 |
| Trailblazer boars (19) |
10.0 |
162 |
63.5 |
64.3 |
Lacombe boar BL 10544P probed March 30 at Bloomsbury Farms achieved a 160 sire-line index along with a 111 dam-line index – based on 6.0 mm backfat, 152 days to 100 kg, along with 63.4% estimated lean yield and a 64.0 mm loin depth. Highest dam-line index in the group was 133, adding 0.5 piglets to genetic litter size.
As one of the more common respiratory diseases in North America, clinical SIV usually occurs in Spring and in Fall because of weather changes, with coughing in the sow barn as the first indication.
Discussions with Drs. Frank Marshall and Pete Pawluk indicate that problems may, or may not, be severe. Animals suffering from SIV may show (1) sows off feed, (2) some coughing and sneezing and hence (3) perhaps resulting in reproductive and production problems throughout the barns as (a) delayed returns to service, (b) less thrifty pigs at birth or increased abortions and (c) decreased milk production.
1. PEAK Swine Genetics will put any of its breeding herds on hold for delivery of breeding stock during a break on that farm.
- Farms that receive pigs from that farm will be notified that their delivery will be postponed until the infection has died down.
- Adequate notice from our veterinary consultants will be given that all is cleared again.
2. Please cooperate with our high-health transportation system to allow a protocol for interlining off-farm, when more than one delivery is expected on the route.
- Interline at least two miles from the farm, especially if the farm is infected.
- Ensure that your interline trailer is clean and disinfected.
3. Please notify your veterinarian immediately if you believe an infection has occurred on your farm.
- This is a requirement for our contracted breeding herds.
- This notification will allow us to consider our transportation routing, to avoid going from an infected farm to an uninfected one.
Treatment may include vaccination and other veterinary recommendations. The virus can travel by animal contact, aerosol and perhaps by people movement. SIV is zoonotic in that it can affect both pigs and people.
SIV is not particularly long-lived in the herd, although it may be quite virulent during the infective period. The break could occur within 12-48 hours, and seroconversion should take place over a week period if all pigs are exposed in the barn. It is best that the entire herd is exposed, so that the virus dies out relatively quickly in the exposed pigs.
Serology can be sent in to a laboratory by your veterinarian to get a positive identification of the particular strain
These notes are not intended to cause worry to our client herds, but to inform and make you aware of this current situation. The veterinary community is working closely with the swine industry, to ensure that the effects of SIV are minimized in the western Provinces.
If new strains of SIV are discovered over time, clinical signs in pig barns will continue to be noticed during any given year.
| Manager | Territory | Cell Telephone | |
| Les Robinson | Southern & Central Alberta | (250) 833-6196 | |
| Paul Klingeman | Pacific Northwest | (509) 989-1347 | |
| Mike Miller | Saskatchewan and Montana | (403) 317-0543 |
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