Keeping your livestock safe from microbes, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi, is the biosecurity goal that all farms should have. Wearing clean, sanitized footwear helps meet this goal as foot traffic moves microbes to and around the farm.
Using the right equipment when vaccinating your cattle requires the right tools. The correct syringes and needles must be used in addition to a well-designed and functioning headgate to restrain cattle so injections may be safely administered in the neck area.
For decades, livestock producers have moved animals on and off the farm by way of sale, leasing, renting, and between other facilities or pastures owned by the farm. With these movements comes the risk of the introduction or spread of disease.
Summer brings higher temperatures and oppressive humidity levels. Heat stress poses a significant risk to pigs and the people taking care of them. By taking necessary precautions we can minimize the challenges and risks associated with the high temperatures.
A hot fair leaves fair exhibitors looking for coolness for both themselves and their fair animals. When temperatures reach above 80 degrees and the relative humidity is above 65 percent, comfort is certainly compromised. This kind of weather can be especially deadly for swine, as they have nonfunctioning sweat glands. Effects of heat stress are […]
Properly cleaning, sanitizing, and storing multi-dose syringes and transfer needles will reduce contamination from many viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The steps described here use only tap and distilled or deionzed (purified) water and do not render the equipment sterile.
Contract hog feeding is an arrangement where one entity contracts with another entity to provide daily care for hogs in various production phases. The most common arrangement, and the arrangement we will discuss here, is a wean-to-finish arrangement where one entity provides weaned pigs, feed, transportation of feed and pigs, and veterinary services and medicine.
Preparing for a Foreign Animal Disease outbreak continues to be one of the most discussed topics in the pork industry. With African Swine Fever as close as the Dominican Republic and Haiti, it has never been more important for pork producers to have a plan in the event of an outbreak.