Research Examining Stress Hormone Levels in Hair Expected to Interest Breeding Companies

Apr 10, 2023

An international research effort which is looking at the potential of measuring hormone levels in the hair of pigs to identify genetic lines that will be less affected by stress is expected to be of particular interest to breeding companies.
Researchers with Iowa State University, the Universities of Saskatchewan and Alberta and CDPQ are collaborating on a project under which the levels of three stress hormones in the hair of pigs are being measured to evaluate the effect of stress on performance and on disease resilience.
Dr. Jack Dekkers, a distinguished professor in the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University and the Principal Investigator, says, by correlating the levels of stress hormones in the hair to growth performance and disease resilience, it should be possible to identify genetic lines of pigs that will be more or less affected by stress.

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Video: Screening Nursery Ingredients - Kynna Crawford

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Kynna Crawford, Graduate Research Assistant at South Dakota State University, discusses how Plackett-Burman designs can help screen nursery diet ingredients for early post-weaning feed intake. She explains why low intake after weaning contributes to stress and mortality, how screening trials can evaluate multiple ingredients in a single study, and how the approach can support both research and commercial nursery nutrition decisions. Listen now on all major platforms!

Click here to read the full research article: https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/...

"A single screening trial can help identify which nursery ingredients deserve deeper research for early post-weaning feed intake."

Meet the guest: Kynna Crawford / kynna-crawford-a2610a3aa is a Master's student in Animal Sciences at South Dakota State University, where her work focuses on swine nutrition and nursery pig management. Her research examines strategies to alleviate weaning stress, including dietary approaches and screening tools to identify ingredients that may promote early feed intake. Learn more from Kynna Crawford on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.