Selecting for Improved Weaning Capacity
By Hypor. The company's breeding programme balances the drive for high weaning weights with the need for a robust and long-lived sow.

Selection for Piglet Vitality Pays Off
Breeding effort since 2002 shows more piglets and less mortality, writes Jackie Linden, ThePigSite Editor.

The Role of Biosecurity in Aujeszky's Disease/Pseudorabies Control
By Jake Waddilove MA, VetMB MRCVS, DuPont Animal Health Solutions. In this article, Jake Waddilove advises that Aujeszky's Disease (AD), or Pseudorabies (PR) as it is also known, is an important worldwide disease. Some countries are free from the disease,...

Multi-Sire, Multi-Mating - A Multitude of Sins
By Jane Jordan, ThePigSite Editor. In Denmark organic pork production is based on applying natural principles to animal husbandry techniques and management practices where and whenever possible. However, research at Aarhus University has shown that relying...

Development of Novel Technologies for Swine Production
The swine production industry operates under a narrow profit margin that has tightened in recent years due in part to increasing governmental regulations, Chad Stahl said in his presentation to the Carolina Feed Industry Association Fall Conference and...

Fetal Pig Programming - An Emerging Concept with Possible Implications for Swine Reproductive Performance
By Mark J. Estienne and Allen F. Harper, VA Tech Tidewater AREC, Suffolk, VA. Livestock Update, April 2008.

Does Dam Parity Affect Progeny Health Status?
By Thomas E. Burkey, Phillip S. Miller, Rodger K. Johnson, Duane E. Reese and Roman Moreno¹. Preliminary data indicate that progeny health status may improve with increasing parity.

Catheter Considerations
This article was based on a peer reviewed paper that appeared in the Journal of Swine Health and Production 15 – Volume 16, Number 1. We have been advised that the authenticity of the aforementioned peer reviewed paper has become sub judice and as a...

Sports Supplements to Aid Parturition and Reduce Perinatal Mortality
By Theo van Kempen Provimi RIC, and North Carolina State University. Published in the University of Nottingham University Press. Perinatal mortality, which includes stillbirths and neonatal mortality in the first days after parturition, is a serious challenge...

Bridging the Gap Between Genetic Potential and On-Farm Performance in Commercial Pigs
By Aedmund J. McClure, Courtesy of Alltech Inc. Commercial hybrid pigs as found on farms throughout the world today have a much improved potential for growth and a much better ability to convert feed to liveweight gain than their counterparts in the late...

European Food Safety Authority Report on MRSA in Breeding Pigs
Report of the Task Force on Zoonoses Data Collection on a proposal for technical specifications for a baseline survey on the prevalence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in breeding pigs¹

I Want it all... and want it now... Eight ball plan could show you how
By Sue Corning, PIC UK. This is a challenging time for the pig industry and indeed the whole supply chain. There are decisions you can make today that will make a difference, or checks that can help confirm and tweak the decisions you have made to optimise...

Managing the Sow and Gilt Estrous Cycle
By Jerry May, Extension Educator, Pork AoE Team and Ron Bates, State Swine Specialist, Michigan State University. At times, managers of sow farms of all sizes are challenged by the availability of sows and/or gilts in standing heat.

The production of breeding material with a good health status
By Geertjan van Groenland, veterinary surgeon, Topigs. Animal health and breeding go hand in hand. The top breeders in the sector work with material with a good health status. By starting eradication programmes at these nucleus breeding farms, it has...

More Accurate Breeding for Conformation
By Abe Huisman, Hypor R&D. Introduction of conformation index makes breeding more accurate

Summer Infertility - An Overview
By PIC. You will have seen over the last few months that we have sent you a series of information on summer infertility.

Summer Infertility - Part 3 of 4 - A Vets Perspective
Annie Davis from George Veterinary Group and Julia James from Larkmead Veterinary Group give us their perspective on the incidence of summer infertility, highlighting the main problems caused and key pointers on how you can help manage it on farm.

Summer Infertility - Part 2 of 4 - Hygiene, Strategy, Boars and Semen Storage
By PIC. PIC have produced a number of informative publications to help producers manage the incidence of summer infertility. Part 2 of this series looks at service hygiene, service strategy and semen storage.

Summer Infertility - Part 1 of 4 - How to prepare for it
By PIC. As summer approaches it is important to start to think about alleviating the problem of summer infertility in your herd.

Selecting Gilts for Lifetime Productivity
By Dr. Todd See, Swine Genetics Specialist, North Carolina State University. Simultaneous advances have been made in the number of pigs a sow can produce each year, predominantly due to management, and in lean (growth rate and percentage), predominantly...

Comparative AI in pigs and cattle
By Stuart Revell - Senior Veterinary Surgeon (Research) Genus/ABS. When studying comparative reproduction in farmed mammals, they don’t come much more different than cattle and pigs.

Thinking boar feeding
By Mick Hazzledine, Premier Nutrition and published in PIC's Pig Genomics Journal - A quick look in the scientific literature quickly reveals a mass of papers on the reproduction of pigs.

The Changing Mineral Status of High Producing Sows
By Don Mahan and published in the Midwest Swine Nutrition Conference 2006 - With the introduction of high producing maternal lines into commercial swine herds, the number of pigs born, weaned and the subsequent increase in birth and weaning weights are...