Trial Tracks Impact Of Feeding Frequency
Aggression, body condition scores and reproductive levels were compared when sows were fed twice vs. six times/day. Kansas State University researchers...
TQA: What's In a Name?
The pork industry extends its hog-handling focus from truckers to a broader Transport Quality Assurance program. To minimize pork quality losses during...
Clearing Up the Confusion Over Pork Quality-Plus
Fact sheet offers quick rundown of new industry program. Participation in the National Pork Board's Pork Quality Assurance-Plus (PQA-Plus) program, introduced...
Electric Prod Use Can Be Costly
Research at Canada's Prairie Swine Centre (PSC) confirms that use of an electric prod to move market hogs elevates stress levels in the animals vs. other means of handling...
‘Pig-Friendly’ Loading Chute Minimizes Loading Stressors
Pigs marketed on a prototype loading gantry were exposed to fewer stressors, including electric prods and incidence of slips, falls, vocalizations and piling. Pig mortalities from farm to harvest are estimated to cost the U.S. swine industry over...
Management Effects on Group Sow Housing
Canadian researchers have learned that the productivity in electronic sow feeding (ESF) systems is comparable to sows housed in stalls, provided proper management practices are followed...
Sows on the Silver Screen
Sows at the University of Illinois are being videotaped around the clock to determine if their “microenvironment” might create stress. By filming the activities of sows...
Sow Housing Debated
A University of Illinois animal scientist offers support for individual stalls, while a Canadian scientist provides an overview of group sow housing research....
Stalls or Pens? Ask the Sows!
Is the move to abandon stalls for gestating sows a done deal? Not in some people's minds. Listen close and you'll hear a murmur spreading in the pork...
Pork Board Welfare Committee Kicks Off 2008 Planning Process
The National Pork Board’s animal welfare committee held a strategic planning session July 8 in San Antonio, TX, just prior to the American Society of Animal Science annual meeting...
