High Herd Health Remains Saskatchewan Pork Sector's Greatest Advantages

A partner in Polar Pork Farms says high herd health remains one of the western Canadian pork sectors most precious advantages. Six years ago Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea surfaced in North America ultimately causing the loss of an estimated eight million hogs and stimulating an expanded focus on biosecurity.

 

Florian Possberg, a partner in Polar Pork Farms, says while Saskatchewan has remained PED free the risk of disease continues to escalate.

 

 

For our business, being here in North America, the most direct impact on our swine industry in 2020 was COVID because of plants that shut down in the United States and in Canada for periods of time, created big backlogs of market hogs that couldn't be harvested.

 

That really had a terrible impact on our industry for most of the late spring and summer of 2020. Internationally though African Swine fever is devastating southeast Asia, China Cambodia, Philippines, Korea, South Korea. That continues to have a big impact there.

 

It's believed that in the last two years, at the peak in China which has almost half the pigs in the world, it's estimated that they lost 65 percent of their herd at the peak of the infection and it's even spreading through Europe. It's been identified in the wild boar herds in Germany so Germany can not ship to a lot of international importers of pork and that again is having an impact on our business.

Video: Methionine Requirements for Lactating Sows - Cierra Kozole

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Cierra Kozole, PhD candidate in Swine Nutrition at the University of Guelph, explains how methionine supports lactating sows beyond milk protein synthesis. She discusses updated requirement estimates, source comparisons, methylation demand, and why modern sow genetics may require more precise amino acid strategies. Listen now on all major platforms!

"Methionine supports protein synthesis while also serving critical functions through methylation pathways that influence multiple biological processes."

Meet the guest: Cierra Kozole / cierra-kozole-772b64253 is a PhD candidate in Swine Nutrition at the University of Guelph in Canada. Her doctoral research focuses on refining estimates of methionine requirements for primiparous lactating sows, including evaluating methionine sources, nutrient partitioning, methylation reactions, and the links among amino acid supply, milk production, and sow protein retention. Learn more from Cierra Kozole on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.