ABOVE: Demonstrating baiting and trapping for effective feral pig management. Darren Marshall from SQ Landscapes in Queensland and Richard Evison from Westpork. As many of you know, the National Feral Pig Action Plan promotes coordinated and collective efforts by land managers to suppress feral pig populations, reduce their destructive impacts and minimise biosecurity risks over…
ABOVE: The vaccine protected 90 percent of piglets in a trial from JEV infection. Photo: Australian Pork Limited Australian Pork Limited is currently funding a project on the development of a novel Japanese encephalitis virus vaccine for pigs. The vaccine is being developed in conjunction with Dr Jody Hobson-Peters and her team at the University…
ABOVE: Stomach ulcers may cause changes in the way pigs rest or may be the result of such changes. Research conducted between the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and Queens University Belfast found that stomach ulcers may cause changes in the way pigs rest, or may be the result of such changes. Therefore, changes in behaviour…
ABOVE: Australian Pork Limited to launch a consumer-focused sustainability campaign in February. Given people’s busy lives, having an interest and understanding of pork production isn’t on most people’s radar. In one regard, some may see this as a strength for the industry, however there is a missed opportunity to showcase all the good we do…
ABOVE: A Spanish man’s visa has been cancelled after he failed to declare pork and cheese in his luggage. Photo: AAP A Spanish traveller was the first person fined under beefed-up biosecurity laws after he failed to declare meat and cheese in his luggage. The 20-year-old man’s visa was cancelled, and he was fined $3300…
ABOVE: Early life contact with humans can play a substantial role in shaping piglets’ behavioural and physiological responses to stress. An experiment undertaken by collaborative researchers from the University of Melbourne, Rivalea and the University of Queensland – entitled ‘Positive human contact and housing systems impact the responses of piglets to various stressors’ – provided…
ABOVE: Photo: J Oostrom, supplied by the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions In early December, the final stakeholder forum for 2022 of the National Feral Pig Action Plan addressed the theme of ‘The power of data to inform feral pig management strategies’. Feral pig management is difficult, expensive and time consuming. Unfortunately, no single technique…
ABOVE: Piglets are commonly born with low iron reserves. Photo: Kameron Kincade Most producers understand that iron is an essential nutrient for all livestock, vital for producing the proteins that enable red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body and facilitate normal growth. Yet piglets in particular are commonly born with low iron reserves.…
ABOVE: High-rise hog house horror in China. A Concerned almost distraught member of ‘United Poignant Porcines’ alerted me recently to the news that a 26-storey ‘pig tower’ had not only been built in China, but had admitted its first ‘prisoners’, with some 3700 sows already interned. Easily the biggest single-building pig farm in the world,…
ABOVE: Stockyard Industries supplied and installed 168 freedom-style mating stalls with lifting back gates, plus a Big Dutchman automatic feedline and six-tonne silo. Victorian-based producer Grant Kelly and his family have been involved in the pig industry for over 50 years, providing them with an understanding of how important it is to have high quality…
ABOVE: Pig enjoy muddy wallows, which they use to help regulate their body temperature in warmer weather and protect themselves from sunburn, flies and external parasites. Photo: Crispin Jones Curious and clever, pigs are certainly remarkable animals. Many Australians appear to agree, taking an interest in pig welfare by choosing to look for higher welfare…
ABOVE: There are many parameters to determine the impact of heat stress. For example, feed and water intake, panting score and feed conversion rate. Photo: Phytobiotics With the 2022-23 summer approaching, a timely webinar on heat stress and seasonal infertility was held by Australasian Pork Research Institute Ltd on October 19 to review current research…