Quality and performance

 

Maximizing performance of pigs is one of the key activities of veterinarians. Many scientific and practical insights on how to enhance productivity and meat quality of pigs have evolved over the past years. This page provides quality and performance mangement related articles for pigs.

 

Latest article

Ovarian cysts and their consequences on the reproductive performance of swine herds

Ovarian cysts and their consequences on the reproductive performance of swine herds

The aim of this work was to determine the incidence of ovarian cysts in the breeding herd and their consequences in the reproductive performance of the herd. Data from 1990 cyclic sows from two farms, with 0–12 parities, lactation length between 6 and 47 days and weaning-estrus interval between 0 and 32 days were evaluated by ultrasound examination for cyst incidence.
As cyst was considered an anaechoic structure with smooth and thin walls with a diameter larger than 2 cm that remained visible for at least 5 days after estrus onset. Cyst incidence... read more »

More articles

Increasing daily feeding occasions in restricted feeding strategies does not improve performance or well being of fattening pigs

The natural feeding behaviour of the pig is searching for feed by rooting activities throughout the day; self-feeding pigs randomly space their eating and drinking periods throughout the day consuming ten to twelve meals per day. Pigs in conventional fattening pig production are normally fed 2–3 times daily with the feed consumed within 15 minutes. The aim of this study was to determine if more frequent feedings could improve the performance of conventionally kept fattening pigs. read more >

Consequences of birth weight for postnatal growth performance and carcass quality in pigs as related to myogenesis

In polytocous species such as the pig there is intralitter variation in birth weight and skeletal muscle fiber number. It is commonly recognized that low birth weight in piglets correlates with decreased survival and lower postnatal growth rates. read more >

Strategy to select Bifidobacterium strains and prebiotics as natural growth promoters in newly weaned pigs

The study addresses the first two weeks of piglet weaning and is aimed at i) identifying new probiotic strains of Bifidobacterium spp. and non-digestible oligosaccharides (NDO) able to increase the level of autochthonous bifidobacteria in the gut, and ii) finding the best probiotic doses, and probiotic-NDO combinations for piglet growth and gut health. read more >

Dietary fat type and pig meat quality

The impact on meat quality of fatty acids in pig feed is not so well-known. Recent research has shown that feeding pigs a diet with sunflower oil instead of beef tallow altered the fatty acid composition of tissues without affecting various characteristics of meat quality. read more >

Cool sows make piglets grow faster

Research at the Centre for Innovative Pig Farming at Sterksel in the Netherlands is focused at trying to discover economic ways of pig farming. In November last year a research was published, aimed at increasing farrowing sows’ feed intake by keeping their pens cool. Both sow and litter benefited. read more >
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