Dutch Pig Organisations Join Forces
NETHERLANDS - The activities of the Dutch organisations Van Gennip KI, PIC and Hypo/Parvak have joined together under the new name Preferent KI.

Royal Honour for Jan van Vugt
THE NETHERLANDS - Retiring Pigture Group director Jan van Vugt has been appointed Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau. Van Vugt received the Royal honour on 2 June 2008 during the annual general meeting of Coöperatie Pigture Group in Ede, the Net...

Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health Appoints Executive Team
THE NETHERLANDS – Schering-Plough appointed the Executive Team members of the company’s global animal health unit: Intervet / Schering- Plough Animal Health. These appointments define the major steps in the design process of the animal health unit. The...

Dutch Study Certifies Efficiency of BD Air Washer
THE NETHERLANDS - MagixX, the Big Dutchman exhaust air washing system, has been proven to be one of the best combi-systems for reducing dust, ammonia, and odour emissions from pig houses.

Breeding for Vitality Works - Weaning Performance Excels
THE NETHERLANDS - Dutch pig farmers using TOPIGS sows have achieved an average production of 26.36 weaned piglets per year in 2007. Compared with 2006, this is an increase of 0.65 piglets

Selection for Piglet Vitality Pays Off
THE NETHERLANDS - A decision taken in 2002 to select for piglet vitality is now showing more piglets per litter and less mortality, says breeding company TOPIGS

Social Behaviour Now Included in Selection
NETHERLANDS - Sociable pigs can now be bred thanks to a method developed jointly by the Institute for Pig Genetics (IPG) in Beuningen and the Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre of Wageningen University. It's the first time such a trait has been included...

MRSA Contaminates 11 Per Cent of Meat
NETHERLANDS - The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (VWA) says it has found that 11 per cent of meat products in the retail sector are contaminated with the hospital bacteria MRSA. The statement is based on a recent study carried out by...

Hypor To Acquire France Hybrides
NETHERLANDS - Hypor, the pig breeding division of Hendrix Genetics BV has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire France Hybrides from Groupe Glon.

High Health Unit Opts for Own Transport
THE NETHERLANDS - Dutch SPF Nucleus breeder Hendriks has purchased its own truck to transport feed from the mill to its breeding farms.

New CEO For Pigture
THE NETHERLANDS - Martin Bijl has been appointed as new general director of Pigture Group, the parent company of TOPIGS.

Effect Yeast and MOS evaluated in Weaners
NETHERLANDS - An Animal Sciences Group from Wageningen University has carried out an experiment to determine the effects of yeast culture (XPCLS) and yeast culture XPCLS + mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) in pig diets on the performance, gut integrity, and...

Piglet Protocol Gives Insight into Dam Performance and vitality
NETHERLANDS - Piglet vitality and mothering abilities are two key items in the TOPIGS breeding programme.

New Man For Technical Marketing
NETHERLANDS - Ruud Eits PhD has joined Trouw Nutrition Hifeed BV as Technical & Marketing Manager.

Herbal worm control a plus for organics, say researchers
NETHERLANDS - Studies by the Animal Sciences Group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands have proved that a non-pharmaceutical worming programmes, using specific plant extracts can be very effective.

International Award for Hendrix Genetics
NETHERLANDS - Hendrix Genetics has been recognized as 'Business of the Year 2007' by the Dutch-Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Zeist, the Netherlands.

Behaviour, efficiency and secure access: Key developments for pig producers
NETHERLANDS - Nedap welcomed its business partners from across the world to its Velos Event 2007, held at their premises in Groenlo, The Netherlands, last week.

Dutch delegation visits Chinese TOPIGS farm
NETHERLANDS - A Dutch delegation representing the meat trade, was in China on a fact finding tour of it's pork industry. The group visited a local pig farm which using TOPIGS high-health genetics.

Future Development And Economic Spin-Offs
NETHERLANDS - To maintain SPF status after re-stocking, Hypor recommends that pig units are declared a "closed farm" as soon as the new animals have entered. Pigs can leave the farm, but principally new breeding animals will not enter the farm.

Bio-Hypor Program Key To Herd Security
NETHERLANDS - As soon as animals entered, the farm was declared a "closed farm". Animals can leave the farm, but principally new breeding animals will not enter the farm. In-house breeding is done via data transfer to the Hypor Breeding Database in the...