A3o—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 19,1981
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What You Should
Know About
Swine Health
by Glenn Shirk
Lancaster Extension Agent
(Editor's note • This is the third article
in a senes on swine health)
The selection of new herd boars
should begin far enough before the
start of breeding to allow for
proper isolation and retesting of
new boars as well as fenceline
contact with the sow herd, reports
Matthew J. Parsons, Penn State
Extension swine specialist.
Prior to selection of a boar or
group of boars, herds with
adequate health standards must be
identified as potential sources.
Sources of boars can be divided
into three risk categories based on
health programs.
Validated (brucellosis free;,
qualified (pseudorabies free)
closed herds are generally the
lowest disease risk. These herds
may be completely closed and only
bring in new genetic material
through artificial insemination, or
a modified closed herd that brings
in only a few animals and follows
strict isolation and retesting
procedures. These are low risk
herds because of the care taken in
introducing new animals that may
carry a disease problem and
because of the quarterly testing for
pseudorabies and brucellosis.
Herds that follow a poorly
defined isolation procedure and
test only sale animals are a higher
disease risk. The purchaser of
boars may not know the disease
status of this type of herd upon
selection of a boar. High risk
sources include breeders with on
health or isolation program,
breeders that allow boar buyers
into the boar pens and stockyards.
Boars that have been exposed to
other pigs of questionable disease
status (such as at the stockyards;
or organisms from other pigs
(such as from a boar buyer being
in the pen) have a higher risk of
carrying some disease problem.
In purchasing boars, the buyer
should make a selection from a
herd with a sound herd health
program. Most producers seek
boars from the low to medium risk
Day Prebreeding
0 Start Breeding
14 Expose to Fenceltne Contact or Cross-contaminate with fecal
material
21 Retest for Pseudorabies
21-51 Isolate boar
58 Test boar for Pseudorabies and Brucellosis (not necessary if the
boar is from a Qualified. Validated herd)
60 Select boar to be purchased
MAES researchers
get broiler grant
COLLEGE PARK, Md. Two
research scientists for the
Maryland Agricultural Ex
periment Station are the recipients
of a $6,600 grant from the
Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. to
study feed and environmental
requirements of broiler breeding
stock.
The two researchers both
members of the faculty of the
Department of Poultry Science at
the University of Maryland,
College Park are Mary Ann
Ottinger, assistant professor of
physiology, and Joseph H. Soares
Jr., professor of nutrition.
The study is an extension of an
earlier project funded by DPI and
will continue Ottinger’s and
categories. The herd selected
should be free of pseudorabies,
brucellosis, swine dysentery and
haemophilus pneumonia. It is
highly desirable if the herd has not
had TGE in the last year, too.
Once the herd or herds for
purchasing boars from has been
identified, then a timetable can be
developed. This timetable must
include adequate time for testing
(if needed), isolation, retesting
and fenceline contact of new boars.
If proper isolation and testing
procedures are followed to
minimize the risk of importing
disease' problems into a herd,
approximately sixty days will be
needed from the time one sets out
to purchase a new boar until the
boar starts to breed.
Newly purchased boars should
be isolated by penning them in a
separate pen that is physically
separated by some distance from
other hog pens. There should be as
little tratfic as possible from the
isolation pen to other hogs;
preferably, a separate set of boots
and coveralls should be kept at the
isolation area to be used when
caring for the isolated pig or pigs.
Precautions should be taken to
minimize pet and wild animal
traffic through the isolation area.
At the end ot a li> to aO day
isolation period, a blood sample'for
a pseudorabies test should be
obtained. Pigs that Were negative
for pseudorabies before isolation
may become positive during the
isolation period. This indicates
that the pig had been exposed to
pseudorabies, but that not enough
time had elapsed by the start of the
isolation penod for the pig to
develop any signs of the disease.
Pigs having a positive
pseudorabies test at the end of the
isolation period should be shipped
to slaughter. It the boar bas a
negative pseudorabies test he can
then be removed from isolation
and exposed to tenceline contact
with gilts or sows.
BOAR BUYER TIMETABLE
Soares' examination of the effect
of feed intake and social en
vironment on reproduction,
behavior and the endocrine status
of the broiler breeder.
“A limited amount of in
formation is available regarding
the physiological and metabolic
state required for optimal
reproduction in meat-producing
strains of chickens,” say the
researchers. “Broiler production
in the Delmarva peninsula has
continually increased, pumng
increasing demand on the
reproductive capability of the
broiler breeder.”
Also participating in funding of
this research is MSD Agvet, a
division of Merck & Co.
DVC Albi Polka EX 90 is the cornerstone of , pounds of milk and 799 pounds of fat
the Ayrshire herd. This top cow produced this past year.
DVC dairy herd
(Continued from Page A2B)
351 days -21128 M -997 F. One of the
top Ayrshire individuals is DVC
Flashy Jubilee, VGB9, with a
production record at 5.4 years - 365
days -23930 M -951 F.
Thirty’ percent of the milk
produced by the dairy herds is
pasteurized on the premises and
consumed by those of the 1375 full
time students that take meals on
campus. The remainder of the
milk is soldto Quaker Maid.
The Holstein herd was just re
classified Dec. 1981 with 4-EX, 15-
VG, 18-G+, 6-G and is pending a
new Breeding Analysis Average of
104. L •
The Brown Swiss herd was
classified m Oct. 1980 with 5-VG, 4-
G+ and an average herd score of
84.8. The Ayrshires which are now
all DVC bred were last classified in
I ★ A Christmas Message ★ |
I REMEMBER REAL AMERICA? . |
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to be respected. When a girl was considered daring if she smoked in public. When a girl S
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word. When liberal wasn't. When a nickel was worth five cents and could buy you a g*
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zg and you saw three pictures. When taxes were only a nuisance. S
m When the poor were too proud to take charity. When-you weren’t afraid to go out atg
3 night. When Protestants and Catholics thought enough of their beliefs to argue about S
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« adventure, not an ordeal. When you had to be brave to fly. When you could always find M
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S Christ was hpf in if. g
Mr ' SK
ja When the flag was a sacred symbol. When our government stood up for America, g
anywhere in the world. When a man who went wrong was blamed, not his mother’s £
® nursing habits or his father’s income.
When everyone knew the difference between right and wrong, even Harvard £
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SI When America was the land of the free, the home of the brave and rightly so! M
g. The Real America appeared initially in material released by The Conservative Book Club and is g
SI reprinted by EECO. Inc .4021 N 6th Street, Harrisburg, Penna 17I10asa tributetoAmencans
ay who believe that' IK
§ Jesus Christ, the Virgin born son of God, is the hope of the world and that there is no
g ether name under heaven whereby we must be saved. Jsr
fg If you believe in saving America, say so; not everyone does! M
July 1981 with 1-EX, 6-VG, 2-G+
for a herd average classification
score of 83.
DVC attends a limited number of
shows. They exhibit at the county
fair (Middletown Grange Fair)
where they consistently place well.
They show a few Holsteins in tough
competition at the Holstein
Eastern Pa. Championship Show
held at Kutztown and sent 4 from
each of the three breeds to the 1981
Farm Show where their Ayrshire
aged cow, DVC Albi Polka E 90
placed second with first mammary
in her class. Four year old Brown
Swiss, DVC Delegate Lyric placed
first in her class and DVC won the
Brown Swiss Premier Breeder’s
Trophy.
DVC presently has 4 Holstein
bulls in sire services, all in
waiting- Two are at Carnation
Genetics and two are at Atlantic.
Hamer says his aims for the
future of the DVC herds are to
continue to use the top TPI (Type
Production Index) bulls in the
country,' He plans -to continue
improvement of good functional
type particularly in feet and legs
and improved excellence in
mammary conformation. He is
striving to increase depth of
pedigree and to continue to in
crease in milk production.
These goals are an essential part
of teaching of the students as the
varied classes use the dairy
facilities, to learn sound,
progressive but practical dairy
science management.