Better Pork - April/May 2002Porcine sentinels that stand on guard for thee
Using a network of 100 hog farms across the province, scientists are establishing an early warning system for pathogenic diseases in the food supplyby KEN BENNETT
There used to be a story going around that pigs could make better guard animals than dogs. Though few have tested the idea of porcine sentinels, Dr. Robert Friendship, a professor of population medicine at the University of Guelph, believes "sentinel herds" of pigs in Ontario can do just that, acting as an early warning system for pathogenic diseases before they cross the safety barrier between barn and dinner table. "There's a lot you can do once you've got the infrastructure set up," says Friendship, "It's a very powerful tool for research and for thinking out strategies."Friendship, along with Dr. Tim Blackwell, Veterinary Scientist at the OMAFRA Field Office in Fergus, has established a network of 100 hog farms that act as a surveillance conduit from Windsor to the Quebec border, Niagara Peninsula to Grey-Bruce. "As an extension veterinarian, people often ask me, "How many people vaccinate for this disease" or "How many herds do you think are positive for this?" Blackwell says, adding that with this system, "we can get a good cross-section of what's going on out there and get the answers to a lot of questions that people want to know."
Their farm network covers a wide range of sow units, finishing barns, farrow-to-finish operations on both large and small farms. Both scientists believe it will streamline research since a stable, representative population for sampling will speed up completion of new studies. "We can co-ordinate so that five different researchers aren't all trying to phone up producers and get out to the farms," says Friendship. "Instead, they can just all go through this one source." With fresh blood and manure samples available, preliminary tests can also be done to establish the need for more extensive research or answer simpler questions that arise.
Using $40,000 in funding from Ontario Pork, Friendship, who is co-ordinator of the Swine Research Program at the University of Guelph, took a series of blood samples last summer from sows and finisher pigs with some matching manure samples from each farm. With an additional $40,000, he has now begun investigations that include new tests for salmonella and E. coli. Having received confirmation of $240,000 from the OMAFRA Food Safety Research Program in December, he hopes the Sentinel Herds will continue to be another valuable tool available to pork producers and scientists.
"We're out there looking for problems even before they have been reported. We want to know everything that's out there so we can make intelligent decisions -- from manure management to food safety to production health," says Blackwell. The research findings may not always be popular but Balckwell suggests this is no reason to curb support.
"The more information we can get the better and this seems so far to be an enormously useful database." Friendship says the Danish pork industry has led the way in monitoring for food safety diseases and has used that to spur exports. "They are very proud of how safe their pork is and they do a lot of things to assure their customers that their pork is free of pathogens. If we knew what we would find, then there would be no point in doing this work. So there will be surprises. I think it gives the Ontario pork producers a great deal of credibility," he says. BP
Developing a rapid and inexpensive salmonella test
If your goal is to show that Ontario pig farms don't have salmonella, continue the traditional practice of taking random cultures of manure samples to find it. The University of Guelph's Dr. Robert Friendship believes this traditional method hasn't been very effective in finding what he suggests is a widespread organism. "We're more likely to find salmonella on the farm if we searched the whole barn and found the scouring pig," he claims. Using blood samples, he is developing a rapid and inexpensive serological test to identify the infection in herds.In his study, Friendship compared the presence of salmonella in manure with a measurement of antibodies in blood of the same animal. "What we found so far is that taking blood samples looks like a really good screening process," he says, "The tests are specific enough and good enough that you are awfully certain that you are identifying antibodies to salmonella." He describes the classic method of culturing manure samples as slow and labour-intensive while not readily detecting active cases of infection.
Since pigs with Salmonella grow well despite symptoms of loose, watery diarrhea, Friendship believes it is not a large concern from a production standpoint. For human health, however, it must be stopped in its tracks at the packing plant. With some percentage of pigs shedding large numbers of the organisms in the gut and faeces at slaughter, care must be taken to ensure none of that content contaminates the meat carcass. "Pork should be coming out of the packing plant clean and free of salmonella," he says.
However, he notes that where salmonella has been taken into the packing plant in the first place, the safety barrier moves one step closer to humans than it might otherwise be. "There's potential for contamination and it would be much better if fewer and fewer hogs arriving at slaughter were carrying salmonella."
"I think this is the beginning of a program of trying to reduce the amount of salmonella found on pig farms," he says. "If you're trying to make Ontario pork safer, you want to know which herds have high levels of antibodies and why those herds are like that. If certain farms are free of a disease like salmonella, farmers want to know what they are doing differently so they can change their own operation." BP
© copyright 2002 AgMedia Inc..
back
Submissions requested for advanced manure management technologies
OMAFRA is making available $225.000 to develop a database of technologies for the Ontario livestock industryby SAM BRADSHAW
Brian Coburn, Ontario's Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs recently approved $222,005 in provincial funding for the environment.The money will come from the Healthy Futures for Ontario Agriculture program. It's being directed to the Advanced Manure Management Technologies for Ontario (AMMTO) project.
AMMTO is a group comprised of representatives from farm operations, agri-business, government, agricultural organizations and farm commodity groups interested in evaluating advanced manure management technologies to meet the changing needs of all sizes of livestock producers in Ontario. Cold Springs Farm Ltd., Ontario Pork, the Poultry Industry Council, the Ontario Pork Industry Council, Premium Pork, Selves Farms and the province represent the funding partners. Solid and liquid manure management technologies are being evaluated to develop a database of technologies that can meet the varied environmental, economic and social requirements of the livestock production sector of Ontario agriculture.
AMMTO is requesting technical summary submissions for any and all manure management technologies that can provide environmental, economic or social benefits to livestock producers of any size through (but not limited to) the following:
Surface and groundwater protection
* Co-treatment of off-farm organic materials and manures to produce an enhanced nutrient source for crop production.
* Pathogen destruction.
* Organic stabilization.
* Reduce potential for surface and groundwater nutrient and bacteria loading from land application. Reduction in land base requirements
* Removal of mineralized manure nutrients (N,P,K) for off-farm sales.
* Converting manure into an organic material suitable for off farm sales.
* Reduce volumes of manure generated in the barn/barn yard.
* Drying of liquid manure and manure runoff.2. Improvement in air quality
* Odour reduction.
* Reduction in greenhouse gases produced by manures.3. Maximization of manure nutrient and organic matter value
* Incorporation of chemical fertilizer and manure into a single crop nutrient commodity.
* Enable manure to be applied in its natural state to any growing crop.
* Convert manure into a form that can be more readily applied to any growing crop.
* Mineralization of manure nutrients.
* Balancing manure nutrients to match crop nutrient requirements.
* Pelletization of manure to enhance application. Recovery of energy
* Anaerobic treatment of manures and/or other off-farm organic materials for organic stabilization and production of biogas as an alternative energy source. Ensure economic viability
* Reassure society that manure is being managed in an environmentally sound manner.
* Reduce environmental concerns regarding land application of manures.
* Incorporation of chemical fertilizer and manure into a single crop nutrient commodity.
* Volume reduction.
* Moisture reduction.
* Co-treatment of off-farm organic materials and manures to produce an enhanced nutrient source for crop production.
* Centralization of manure management facilities to handle manure from entire production regions in the province.
* Meet changing regulatory requirements for manure management.AMMTO is encouraging industry, researchers, educational institutions and farm operations that can offer an advanced manure management technology suitable for any size of livestock operation to submit a technology summary to AMMTO for review. Submissions must be made using a Manure Management Technology Review Submission Form and should be made by April 15, 2002. Any additional information beyond that requested in the Review Submission Form is welcome, but must be appended as a separate document.
Questions regarding submissions should be directed to Richard St. Jean at 519-886-7500, Ext. 225, or e-mailed to rstjean@geomatrix.com.. Submissions should be sent to AMMTO c/o Richard St. Jean, 1140 Tye Rd., RR# 1 New Hamburg, Ontario, N0B 2G0. BP
Sam Bradshaw is environmental specialist with Ontario Pork.
© copyright 2002 AgMedia Inc..
back