Carmen Alonso García-Mochales

The authors share their experience on tail biting risk factors identification as well as the production of non-docked pigs.

Key swine veterinary practitioners describe the “PRRS-ception” of this disease in the most important pork producing regions.

Total born, use of toxin binder, farrowing assistance and health status show an association with sow mortality due to uterine prolapses.

Percentage of prolapsed sows has consistently increased every year, from 4.8 in 2012 to 10.2% in 2016.

The most direct strategy to decrease the concentration in the air of airborne pathogens is dust reduction. This article describes the use of a particle ionization system called EPI.

A simple system that uses plastic and adhesive tape to prevent the entry of unfiltered air into a barn can also serve as a safe method to prevent inappropriate non-biosecure personnel movement.

The installation of physical barriers at strategic personnel entry points help to define distinct biosecurity areas. This method is commonly used in farms that lack a clear separation between areas with different biosecurity levels.

The use of plastic and gravel to prevent the growth of vegetation around the perimeter of the barn. This is a simple strategy that will also decrease the chances for rodents to enter the facilities and it will help improve external barn biosecurity.

This study demonstrates the added profitability that air filtration can give to sow farms located in highly dense swine regions. However, it is important to point out that these figures are long term averages and not necessarily predictors for individual herds.

To accurately predict sow body weight by using their flank to flank measurement in order to determine daily feed intake or accurate medication dose.

This case describes an acute outbreak of gastric ulcers in pigs of 30-40 kg live weight that affected 38 farms throughout a year and that presented mortalities from a 5% up to a 40% depending on the severity of the cases.

This study, based on some 120,000 sows, quantifies the reduction of the risk of introducing PRRS viruses when using air filtering.

Apple juice is the favourite kind of juice for the sows during the training sessions.

In high-density swine regions of North America, air filtration is playing an important role in the effort to maintain PRRS free commercial sow herds

The farm, with an elevated number of animals, had been experiencing for several days an increased number of births in gestation on the weekend before moving the sows to the farrowing pens. Mortality in these births was 100%.