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: Reducing Nursery Feed Costs Without Losing Performance - Dr. Julian Arroyave

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Julian Arroyave, a research swine nutritionist at Carthage Innovative Swine Solutions, discusses nursery feed budget strategies designed to reduce costs without compromising pig performance. He explains trials comparing high, medium, and low phase 1 and phase 2 feed budgets, including commercial validation data showing improved income over feed cost when lower-budget programs were applied under healthy herd conditions. Listen now on all major platforms!

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

"Results showed that the low-budget program increased income over feed cost by $1.48 per pig."

Meet the guest: Dr. Julian Arroyave / julian-arroyave-jaramillo-638740129 is a research swine nutritionist at Carthage Innovative Swine Solutions, with experience in nursery nutrition, diet formulation, and commercial research trials. He completed his PhD at Kansas State University and previously worked as a nutrition supervisor at Kekén in Mexico. His work focuses on nutritional strategies that improve production efficiency while controlling feed costs. Learn more from Dr. Julian Arroyave Jaramillo on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.