Feedback and disease prevention in pigs.

Feedback and disease prevention in pigs. The term feedback refers to methods of controlled antigen oral exposure in pig farming,and several methods have been explored to stimulate antibodies in the sows and piglet. The major benefit of feedback is to ensure a disease free stock and production of healthy piglets. The feedback material is usually fed to the sows 8-10 weeks before farrowing to ensure that colostrum is concentrated with antibodies. The common form of feedback material is fecal matter from scouring pigs or from sows in gestation and this will generate maternal antibodies that will be available through colostrum. Pig intestines from sick pigs,low-weight piglets and from dying neonates. The purpose is to extract a concentrated material that contains specific bacterial agents that came from sow feces and the best source for these agents is probably the intestines of young pigs. Another feedback method involves freezing the material into ice blocks giving the pigs access to lick and chew before it melts or the feedback is processed and the slurry is poured on the sows feed. The efficacy of feedback depends on the time of giving feedback, type of feedback collected and the housing arrangement of the sows.The housing arrangement is key as feedback practice has proved to become more difficult when keeping gestating sows in groups, as sows are free to move around and When using electronic Sow Feeding (ESF) stations as the sows are not simultaneously fed,thus exposure to feedback is not uniform. A research published in the Journal of Swine Health and Production says providing additional ice blocks to sows might overcome the nonuniform exposure to feedback and thus confer herd immunity.Enteric pathogens of swine can be frozen and still be viable. Ice blocks could provide a convenient and effective vehicle for controlled exposure of pathogens to pen-gestating sows if sufficient numbers of sows interact with the ice blocks before they melt. The research shows, that when ice was placed in the pen on two consecutive time points 1 week apart, over 90% of the sows in the large dynamic pen contacted the ice. When 4 blocks were used instead of 2 blocks,this increased the number of sows to make contact with the ice, as well as increasing the duration of contact by individual sows and decreasing aggression at the ice block.

MEPs hop into action on rabbit farming welfare

MEPs hop into action on rabbit farming welfare: Member States of the European Union are encouraging rabbit farmers to phase out conventional battery cages.

Indian pork industry benefits from UK pig semen

Indian pork industry benefits from UK pig semen: The Indian and British livestock sectors have strengthened relations after pig semen from UK animals was shipped to India for the first time.

Avian Flu Outbreaks Raise Concerns About Possible Pandemic.

Avian Flu Outbreaks Raise Concerns About Possible Pandemic. U.K. officials confirmed a fifth area in the country has been hit with the H5N8 strain of the avian flu since December. The strain has been spread from wild birds to farmed poultry, but has yet to affect humans, according to the U.K. Department of the Environment. There have been more than 40 countries reporting outbreaks of different strains of the avian flu since last November, according to World Health Organization officials. With the new avian flu outbreaks popping up in recent months, health experts have been increasingly concerned that one or more of the various strains of avian flu could mutate, increasing the risk of a dangerous new flu that could spread quickly across the globe. Normally the virus spreads among birds, often transmitted long distances by wild birds that migrate. In rare cases people in close contact to the birds become ill and the virus rarely spreads from person to person. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the public health community is increasingly concerned that the virus could potentially mutate. "The concern always is that they could pick up a gene that permits that kind of flu to spread readily from person to person," Schaffner said. Currently "bird flu by itself cannot do that." However, Schaffner said in recent years the medical community has developed better surveillance technology to find new outbreaks more easily. On Monday, World Health Organization said they were on "high alert" due to the avian flu outbreaks and the possibility of mutation. During an address to the WHO executive board on Monday, WHO Director Margaret Chan explained one form of the virus first detected in humans in 2015 was created "by gene-swapping among four different viruses." She urged all countries to closely watch for avian flu cases in both birds and humans to stop any new easily transmitted strain of the virus from spreading. "We cannot afford to miss the early signals," Chan said. continue

Equine veterinarians says delayed response to Hendra virus vaccine report stalls education of horse owners.

Equine veterinarians says delayed response to Hendra virus vaccine report stalls education of horse owners.Equine veterinarians say the Queensland Government's decision to delay its response to a report into the Hendra virus vaccine for horses is hampering their efforts to educate horse owners. The vaccine was developed by the CSIRO to protect horses from the deadly bat-borne virus, but some horse owners have questioned its safety.Equine Veterinarians Australia (EVA) president-elect Ben Poole said the delay meant continuing uncertainty, especially for horse owners. He said any delay in a response meant there would be a delay in implementation, pushing back action on critical issues like the speed of testing in the north, which can have consequences for horse health. source

New research strategy offers hope to pastoralists battling mystery cattle disease in southern Flinders Ranges.

South Australia's peak livestock body wants more research funding to help solve mysterious cattle deaths that have left pastoralists and vets baffled for more than a century. About 30 pastoralists from the Hawker and Craddock region have met with Livestock SA and PIRSA vets to discuss a strategy to tackle the unexplained stock deaths. Termed the "November disease", the deaths typically occur within a single cattle or sheep mob without explanation from November to February in years when there is greater rain and more pasture in paddocks. Symptoms include drooling, diarrhea, neurological problems and in almost all cases, eventually leads to death, with autopsy results showing severe liver and kidney damage, intestine inflammation and brain lesions. There are a number of theories about what could be causing the unexplained deaths with pulpy kidney suggested to be the cause in 2016, but that diagnosis has since been ruled out. Other speculated causes are bacterial or fungal toxins from soil or plant matter but ultimately, the cause remains unknown. PIRSA chief veterinary officer Roger Paskin said the sporadic nature of the disease made it difficult to investigate but thus far his team had ruled out all the known traditional bacteria, viruses and infectious conditions.Dr Paskin said understanding those "ecological triggers" for the disease would be key to getting to identifying the cause. more

Doctor pulls 6 foot-long tapeworm from a guys's mouth.

Doctors are telling of a remarkable medical case in which they had to a remove a 6-foot-long tapeworm from a man's gut by pulling it through his mouth. Live Science explains that the 48-year-old patient from India had been having stomach pains for two months before he decided to visit PVS Memorial Hospital in Kerala. During a colonoscopy, doctors discovered a segment of a pork tapeworm, a common sign that a larger tapeworm is hiding elsewhere in the body. Doctors then maneuvered a camera into the man's upper intestine, where they found what Dr. Cyriac Philips describes as the longest tapeworm he's ever seen. The worm was curled up, but as doctors began slowly pulling it out through the patient's mouth in what must have felt like an endless scarf gag, its size became clear. In the end, it measured a little over 6 feet long, doctors write in the New England Journal of Medicine. The patient—who was kindly sedated during the 1.5-hour procedure—likely became infected after eating raw or under cooked pork, per the CDC. Those who have tapeworms often don't know it because they're typically symptom-free. Another case,a 20-foot-long tapeworm caused a man to lose 22 pounds in three days. source