MAGGOTS MAGIC AND POULTRY FEED.

The prices for maize and soy-based feed soar due to shortages ,thus many farmers are looking for alternatives. Mr Kuwana is producing maggots — small, white, crawling worms that feed on waste — to provide protein for his breeding flock of 120 free-range chickens and 1,000 quail. "I have struggled to find nutritious feed for quite some time now," said the entrepreneur, unfazed by the stink of decomposing waste filling the air and the flies swarming around. In search of a solution, he began experimenting with maggots last September. "The results have been exceptional," he said.This business is not for the faint-hearted. For Mr Kuwana, it involves stuffing pungent bird faeces into an old, open 20-litre plastic container, allowing flies to lay their eggs there. Ideally, the maggot-breeding equipment consists of two containers stacked on top of each other, with holes drilled in their lids and the base of the top one. As the eggs start to hatch, the emerging larvae — the maggots — feed on the waste before crawling out to pupate in the bottom container where they are harvested and dried for feed. The entire process takes less than a week. Maggots are made up of 65% protein and 25% fat, compared with 35% protein in soy-based feed, according to Victor Marufu of the Zimbabwe Organic and Natural Food Association. The independent organisation trains small farmers in maggot production. "The value produced from nothing competes with supply chains that are under heavy sustainability stress," Mr Marufu said. One kilogram of fly eggs turns into about 190kg of dried larvae in just three days. For some, maggot production may be the stuff of nightmares, but others are hailing it as a dream come true for controlling waste and climate-changing emissions. The industrial process of producing maggot-based stock feed — using a series of tanks in a purpose-built structure — generates five times less greenhouse gas emissions than soy or maize stock feed, according to Chinhoyi University research. One tonne of stock feed made from maggots, about two tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent is emitted, compared with about 10 tonnes for soy-based feed. Experts say maggot production could help cut Zimbabwe’s annual emissions of 417 gigatonnes of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. In 2000, the waste sector accounted for 16% of national methane emissions, government data shows. Zim Earthworm Farms, a farming technology enterprise, is now looking to go commercial with maggot production after a year of trials. "We have been producing a sizeable amount of maggots that are killed in the biogas digester, dried and then mixed with the maize-based feed we produce," CEO Ephraim Whingwiri said. The mixed feed, which can also be fed to pigs and fish, sustains about 300 chickens at Zim Earthworm Farms, but now Mr Whingwiri is eyeing expansion. The team has worked out that having a constant supply of fresh waste is key to maintaining a high population of flies; just one factor that will support their new business drive. "The work tends to put many people off," said Mr Whingwiri. "But the worm itself doesn’t smell bad at all." Excerpts from Business day Live

Diagnosis of enteric diseases in pigs( 2).

The ban on the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in farm animals has led to development of faster diagnostic techniques to facilitate proper treatment.One of such is the sock analysis;This has led to the development of what is generally known as ‘the sock method’ which consists of taking a standard sock, walking around all pens in the section to be tested, and the sock is then tested with the quantitative PCR test. The number of bacteria can be used to assess the financial impact and whether there are health-related conditions present in the animals tested. The study show considers whether sock samples and laboratory diagnostics could be used routinely as a decision tool for determining when treatment should be started in the individual batch or a pen-site test where farmers will be able to assess the level of pathogens on a daily basis – even in batches without any clinical signs of disease. A complication here is that many of the pigs which might not have clinical diarrhoea still can have a severe intestinal infection. This appears in cases of Lawsonia but also E. coli or Brachyspira species. There will therefore always be a number of pigs which, although not showing signs of diarrhoea, still need antibiotic treatment as it must be assumed that they, first of all, have reduced productivity but also reduced welfare. Several studies have tried to determine if welfare has been compromised in such pigs and there are some indications that this is the case. The best productivity and welfare are achieved by treating at batch level, this is supported by strong professional, scientific arguments for the fact that using batch medication in the water is actually the right thing to do. It has been examined that medication at pen level would be more correct, but as it turns out - all the infections are actually present at the same time in all the pens within the same room. Therefore, all pens within the same batch need treatment at the same time and nothing would be gained by medicating at pen level. Batch medication at section level is therefore the method that provides the best result. This has also been confirmed in another research project which looked at various treatment strategies and dosages. This again showed that herd medication for five days gives the best production result. Source; papers from pig progress.

GENETICS AND PIG PRODUCTIVITY.

Improving genetic lines not only improves production but it creates disease free/resistant lines that maintains herd health and ensures profitability.A lot of pig producers sort and select breeds that will be stable in their environment and produce optimally,this they often do by importing breeding stocks or crossing various lines to come up with that that is suitable for their environment. A pig breeding network in Thai is producing genetic lines that are suitable and adaptable to Asian countries; The siam pigs run by Dr Sakchai Topanurak, Chulalongkorn University and major driving force behind SiamPigs. The goal of SiamPigs' is not only to improve production performance, but also to solve endemic and chronic herd health problems. This concept was borne out of the fact that Western pig breeds do not always come fully prepared for the Asian reality as they are full of various pathogens and different market needs,the need to select genetic lines that are resistant to disease and yielding higher lean meat percentages. The operations of breeding systems ensures a nucleus herd is free from diseases. Genetics from a high health breeding nucleus will subsequently be distributed to a production herd. Breeders lower in the breeding pyramid of course always try to keep their production herds as free from diseases as a nucleus herd would be – and also try to maintain similar high health standards, e.g. by applying strict bio security measures. This is done to enable the pigs to perform to their full genetic potential so that they can deliver effective and competitive products. SiamPigs, established in Thailand, is a network of pig producers using improved genetics, disease tolerant and disease resistant pigs as a tool. The group's goal is not only to improve production performance, but also to solve endemic and chronic herd health problems. Many pig farms have successfully reduced the risk of infection from outside the farm by applying a model that revolves around the principle of 'one nucleus, one farm' . SiamPigs developed its own breeds – Duroc line 929, Large White line 7788, Landrace line 4701 and Siam Kurobuta, with the productivity of the network's members being on par with the world's top producers. Farms in the network vary in size, starting from 400 to more than 10,000 sows. The network covers more than 100 farms in Thailand, with over 250,000 sows using breeding stock and semen developed by SiamPigs.

PIG PRODUCTIVITY # WAY FORWARD.

RBI Agri

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Webinar Improve Pig Productivity

How to improve pig productivity? Can it be achieved by applying multi-phase feeding? Or choosing different climate solutions or perhaps looking at pig genetics? Find out more on February 9.

When aiming at the improvement of pig productivity, many solutions are usually focused on enhancing animal nutrition. After all, how could one more directly influence productivity than through feed? What is certain, however, is that there is a host of other options available as well. That is where our search begins on February 9. Pig Progress shall highlight several of these strategies in an exclusive webinar, brought to you live from Amsterdam, the Netherlands (CET 11.00 -12.00 am). The following speakers shall be sharing their views:

	1. Product Manager Pigs Ludo Bosschaerts: International, independent research has proven that multi-phase feeding produces better feed conversion ratio’s (FCR) and has a positive impact on average daily gain (ADG). A better retention of nutrients in the body has been found and a significant reduction in the production of manure, resulting in a lower expulsion of ammonium gasses into the environment. This Roxell concept results in a high return on investment.
	2. Merete Lyngbye, Master of Engineering, PhD, Director for Livestock Segment at Munters will speak about climate solutions to improve pig producers economy and environmental footprint.
	3. Benny van Haandel. Director/consultant at E-barn Solutions will give a presentation titled ‘Are our current pig genetics future proof?’ “How do new developments in various areas and markets affect the required characteristics of future top performing pigs?” ”

Hosted by Vincent ter Beek, editor of Pig Progress, the live webinar offers you the opportunity to exchange ideas with experts in real time.

Tuesday

9

February 2016

starts at 11:00 AM CET

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RBI Agri webinars

HOUSING PIGS IN STYLE!!!

Pigs housed in beautiful and conducive environment,grow faster, better and are less prone to diseases. The role of housing in production can not be over emphasized,look at how pigs are housed for better productivity; look at the Cavite pig city; Read more here;http://www.pigprogress.net/Growing-Finishing/General/2015/9/Cavite-Pig-City-A-city-within-a-city-2673896W/