Page 2 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Pig Industry Calendar of Events
2019
AUG 11 - 14 – The International Conference on Boar Semen Preservation, Hunter Valley, NSW www.boarsemen2019.com
AUG 25 - 28 – Asian Pig Veterinary Society Congress, Buscan, South Korea www.apvs2019.com/invit.html
AUG 26 - 29 – SafePork Conference, Berlin, Germany www.safepork- conference.com
SEP 21 - OCT 1 – Royal Melbourne Show, Melbourne Showgrounds VIC royalshow.com.au
OCT 19 - 21 – Leman China Swine Conference, Zhengzhou, China www. vetmed.umn.edu/news-events/leman- china-swine-conference
NOV 13 - 15 –2019 Pig Welfare Symposium, Minneapolis, US www.pork. org/events/pig-welfare-symposium
NOV 17 - 20 – Australasian Pig Science Association Conference, Adelaide, SA www.apsa.asn.au
NOV 27-29 – Fatty Pig Conference, Okinawa Prefecture Gender Equality Centre, Okinawa, Japan www. pig333.com/calendar/5th-fatty-pig- conference-2087
How to supply event details: Send all details to Australian Pork Newspaper, PO Box 387, Cleveland, Qld 4163, call 07 3286 1833 fax: 07 3821 2637, email: ben@porknews.com.au
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07 3286 1833
Emerging applications of digital technology
THE first Australian Agriculture Immersive Technology Conference was recently held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
This conference was or- ganised by Meat & Live- stock Australia and sup- ported by the 15 Rural Research Development Corporations who also fa- cilitated themed presenta- tion sessions.
The conference high- lighted the emerging im- portance of digital tech- nology to the sector and featured augmented real- ity, virtual reality and technological innovation across many different sectors of the economy and how this informa- tion may be applied to agriculture.
The line-up of speakers included representations from Virtual Method, Think Digital, Austral- ian Eggs, Forest Learn- ing, IBM, Microsoft, DXC technology, Hitachi, Saab, Australian Wool Innova- tion and KPMG.
Themes included engag- ing with consumers in retail, marketing and the consumer, education and training, manufacturing operations, engineering maintenance and safety on farm agtech.
Many of the speakers also had trade displays which demonstrated their technologies and capabili- ties as well as provided delegates to have in-depth discussions with these companies.
Key benefits included:
• Education and training applications, particularly in remote localities and where biosecurity proto- cols are in place;
• The ability to use light-weight wearable and handsfree technologies to relay technical prob- lems and receive remote assistance virtually, for example animal health assistance, technical and machinery maintenance;
• The ability of technol- ogies to conduct design reviews and enter con- fined spaces virtually to record issues or relay en- gineering issues;
• Potential auto-haul technologies;
• Use of apps as por- tals to augmented reality – examples demonstrat- ed involved the use of a
mobile phone camera to scan a code on packaged product which provided consumers with informa- tion about the product. This information can be regularly changed with- out modifying packaging which present opportuni- ties to convey provenance information about Aus- tralian pork; and
• 360-degree farm tours/ immersive experiences using virtual or aug- mented reality headsets to showcase industry while reducing biosecurity risks associated with bringing visitors on-farm.
We are following up on the contacts made at this conference to better under- stand how these types of technologies could be ap- plied to deliver added value to industry through new and novel applications. R&I welcomes Vaibhav Gole
I am pleased to advise that Dr Vaibhav Gole has been appointed to the role of Manager, Integrity Sys- tems and Capability with the Research and Innova- tion Division and com- mences with us on Mon- day, August 5.
His role includes the management of APL’s R&D investments in food safety, traceability and eating quality and he will also oversee our technol- ogy adoption and capabil- ity programs.
Vaibhav comes to us from Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd where he has been the Microbiological Laboratory Manager for the past three and a half years.
He is a Veterinary Sci- ence graduate with a Master’s degree in animal biotechnology and com- pleted his PhD in micro- biology (food safety) from the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at The University of Ad-
elaide in June 2014.
We look forward to wel-
coming Vaibhav to Aus- tralian Pork Limited and to his ongoing contribu- tions to the Australian pork industry.
Wrapping up the Zero Zinc Conference, Co- penhagen
By 2022, the use of high levels of zinc oxide for the therapeutic treatment and prevention of diarrhoea in weaner pigs will be banned in the EU.
The ban is due to the negative effect ZnO has on the environment.
Therefore, the EU is cur- rently seeking alternatives to ZnO without having to increase antibiotic us- age to keep their pigs free from diarrhoea.
With this deadline loom- ing, the Danish Pig Re- search Centre organised and convened the Zero Zinc Conference, held in Copenhagen on June 17 and 18.
Whilst there are no moves currently to ban the use of ZnO in Aus- tralia, it is important for the Australian pig in- dustry to keep abreast of the alternatives in order to be prepared if a ban does eventuate in order to manage post-weaning diarrhoea in our pigs in the most effective and sus- tainable manner.
The Summit brought together researchers, nu- tritionists, consultants, in- dustry representatives and key stakeholders from the international pig industry- with most of the world represented.
The event was sold out with over 450 participants and a further 50 on the waiting list to attend.
This highlights how much of an issue pro- duction without ZnO is to global pig production worldwide.
At the end of the two-
day event, the answer to the replacement of ZnO was clear - there is no single product proven to be able to replace ZnO effectively.
Rather, production man- agement strategies for the whole herd are required to tackle this issue.
The opening presenta- tion, given by Hanne Damgaard (Aarhus Uni- versity) and Jürgen Zentek (Freie Universität Berlin), focused on the ‘mode of action of high levels of zinc oxide and alternative zinc sources’.
This talk provided good context and understanding of the importance of zinc, outlined briefly below:
• Zinc is mainly ab- sorbed in the first part of the small intestine, with physiological demand increased in young, fast- growing animals.
• A zinc deficiency will lead to a decrease in feed intake, growth check, an outbreak of diarrhoea, increased intestinal zinc loss, reduced zinc levels in the blood and in some cases skin lesions.
• A decrease in feed in- take affects energy intake. This leads to insufficient dietary zinc intake. Suf- ficient daily zinc intake is often met through the inclusion of high levels of ZnO in the feed.
Dr Alfons Jansmen from Wageningen Livestock Research, presented an interesting discussion on ‘Altering feed composi- tion as alternatives to ZnO and to reduce post weaning diarrhoea’, where he outlined that feed in- take was the key to the relationship between gut barrier function and the risk factor for diarrhoea development in the newly weaned animal.
He stated that good preparation for weaning begins with the stimula- tion of the young animal’s gut (via effective creep feeding) while they are still on the sow.
Multiple options were suggested for diet optimi- sation, including:
• Pre-weaning feeding (shaping the microbiota and gut development);
• Selection of protein sources (focusing on di- gestibility and function- ality);
etary protein level and amino acid profile;
• Selection of processed starch source;
• Inclusion of selected feed additives (organic acids, enzymes, pre- and probiotics); and
• Diet formulation, structure and palatability.
Dr Jansmen highlighted that an increase of protein in the gut results in an in- crease in fermentation and a subsequent reduction of microbiota.
He made the following suggestions when consid- ering protein selection for the weaner diet;
• Try to reduce to the selection of enzymatically non digestible proteins as they are a fermentation risk in the distal gastroin- testinal tract;
• Sources with a high crude protein content are highly digestible (such as whey protein, soya con- centrate, potato protein and fishmeal) should be selected;
• Low levels of anti-nu- tritional factors allowing good intake and digestion; and
• There needs to be a balanced amino acid pro- file.
Dr Jansmen concluded his presentation by stating weaning is a very critical period in the life of a pig in relation to the function- al development of the gut.
The sensitivity for gut health problems will not only affect short-term performance, it may im- pact on performance later in life as well.
Niels Jørgen Kjeld- sen (SEGES) presented results from an experi- mental study using 6800 weaners.
This study led to SEG- ES changing their recom- mendation to limit protein level inclusion to 17.5 per- cent in both phase one and two weaner diets.
The study found the treatment of pigs on low protein diets for diarrhoea was reduced by 25 percent compared to diets that did not include ZnO.
Multiple speakers men- tioned the value of clini- cal testing to define the cause of post-weaning di- arrhoea when present in the herd.
Though this sounds like simple advice, outcomes
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