Page 4 of articles about genetics-reproduction in Swine news

Irish researchers have identified genetic traits in pigs that can be used to ensure the tastiest, healthiest pigmeat is delivered to consumers.

The Irish Farmers’ Association has today (Wed) announced a world first ‘DNA certified’ Programme for pigmeat that will expose misleading labelling and provide a guaranteed assurance for producers and consumers on the origin of pigmeat.

The size of the British pig breeding herd may slip below 418,000 sows (from 2007's 436,000 sows), causing pig producers to face a further period of negative margins, according to market analysts at the latest Outlook conference of the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board.

The Saskatchewan Pork Development Board hopes to begin testing swine herds in western Canada for PRRS-Free Herd Certification within the next few months.

According to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), China is once again accepting live hogs exported from the United States. China had suspended those imports two years ago, when H1N1 influenza virus was sickening people, along with pork products.

Piglet mortality in Denmark has been increasing in line with increasing litter size. Scientists from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences have reviewed existing knowledge about the problem and suggest methods to reducing it.

The bilateral health veterinary certificate for swine semen was finalized on January 6th, 2011. US swine genetics industry may proceed with shipments to Ukraine.

Accumulative litter recordings for the National Swine Registry in 2010 were up over 2009 totals, the National Swine Registry announced.

The Rosselkhoznadzor imposed temporary restrictions on import of live pigs, boar semen, pork and raw porcine meat products as well as non-heat-treated porcine products from the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques from December 7, 2010 due to occurrence of Aujeszky’s disease in this department.

In 2010 the Rosselkhoznadzor authorized import of 1360 breeding pigs from Denmark to the Belgorodskaya Oblast. The animals were imported in three consignments accompanied with phytosanitary certificates issued by the National Veterinary Service of Denmark according to which the animals were clinically healthy. 320 animals with lesions on legs and limp were detected in the course of the daily clinical examination in the quarantine period.

Despite improvements in daily liveweight gain and pigs finished per sow, Britain still lags behind its European competition in the production stakes. The latest figures from the BPEX publication on international cost of production show Britain produced 1643kg pig meat per sow in 2009 – the lowest of all the EU countries.

Business Secretary Vince Cable today signed an agreement worth many millions of pounds for the UK economy that will allow the export of British breeding pigs to China, home to half of the world’s pig population. Agreement has also been reached on health certification to allow a start to be made on the export of UK pigmeat to China.

The present statement follows the EFSA 2009 statement and EFSA 2008 scientific opinion and is based on a review of identified peer reviewed scientific literature up to 1 July 2010, information made available to EFSA following a call for data, discussion with experts in the field of animal cloning and a peer review by external experts. The focus of the statement has been to evaluate information related to aspects of food safety, health and welfare of animal clones and their offspring.

In 2010 the number of breeding pigs increased by 1.4% to 427 thousand. The number of fattening pigs decreased by 2% to 3.2 million leading to an overall reduction of 1.6% in the total number of pigs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is proposing to amend the livestock exportation regulations to eliminate pre-export tuberculosis and brucellosis testing for goats and breeding swine if the receiving country does not require such testing.

To conserve and maximize the potential of expanding the native pigs ("lechon") market, the Bureau of Animal Industry-National Swine and Poultry Research and Development Center (BAI-NSPRDC) based in Tiaong, Quezon conducted a study on the “Conservation, Evaluation and Commercialization of the Philippine Native Pigs”. This was funded and supported by the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) under its banner program, the National Technology Commercialization Program (NTCP). The two-year project is led by Dr. Rene C. Santiago, DVM, also the agricultural center chief of BAI-NSPRDC. Project implementation called for collaborations with the local government units (LGUs) of Quezon and selected farmer-cooperators in Laguna and Quezon.