Swine nutritionist Jason Woodworth recently joined the Four Star Veterinary Service (FSVS) team as a consultant to help clients with swine nutrition questions. He comes with 27 years of experience in swine nutrition including a PhD in swine nutrition from Kansas State University (KSU).
Currently a research nutritionist at KSU, Woodworth has started consulting with FSVS on client cases.
“The objective of what I’ll be doing with FSVS is to support the efforts of the veterinarians to improve the health and welfare of the pigs so we can have the most efficient and productive clients possible,” he said.
KSU swine nutrition background
Woodworth grew up on a diversified crop farm at Sterling, Kansas. He went to KSU for an undergraduate degree in swine nutrition while also working and living at the university’s swine unit. He went on to earn his MS and PhD degrees in swine nutrition also at KSU. His research involved the vitamin and mineral requirements of nursery pigs and sows.
For 11 years, Woodworth worked for Lonza, a Swiss life sciences company. He was Global Product Manager for some of Lonza’s specialty feed ingredients and was responsible for the global research and development of the company’s animal nutrition portfolio for all production and companion animal species. This provided Woodworth a nutrition background in a wide variety of species, including lobsters.
He estimates he spent about 50 percent of his time traveling internationally.
In June 2013, he came back to KSU were he re-joined the Applied Swine Nutrition team and is a Research Professor. He helps line up and lead research, and mentor graduate students.
Woodworth lives in Enterprise, Kansas, with his wife Brooke and two sons, Jensen and Carson. He spends time with the family at youth sports and music events, 4-H activities, and their Angus farm.
Raising pigs without antibiotics requires extra management and different tools compared to traditional commercial hog production, reports Laura Carroll, DVM, veterinarian with Four Star Veterinary Service, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. Carroll works with many hog producers who raise pigs without antibiotics for specialty markets.
“We’ve found with antibiotic-free production that the basics are much more important — feed, water and air,” she explained. Things like proper ventilation, access to feed, an adequate supply of water, the right number of nipples for pigs in the pen all become very important.
“Vaccination is another component,” Carroll said. “Commercial and autogenous vaccinations are utilized quite a bit to make sure we’re preventing these disease challenges from occurring.”
Veterinary oversight
While Carroll believes it’s important for all producers to work with their veterinarians, hog farms not using antibiotics will need a little more veterinary oversight.
“We certainly want to make sure we’re on top of any disease challenges as they arise, just because we are limited in the tools in our toolbox that we can utilize,” she explained.
“We have to be a little bit creative in terms of managing pig health and figuring out ways to produce high-quality pigs,” she added.
Adding acidifiers
One tool Carroll and her associates rely on to help baby pigs get a good start is acidifiers. The product is fed on creep feed in the farrowing house.
“We use acidifiers mostly to reduce the pH in the GI (gastrointestinal) tract to make it a more acidic environment,” she said. “Some of the harmful bacteria we deal with like to live in more alkaline, more basic environments. If we can provide an acidic environment to the pigs, then we’re reducing the growth of this potentially harmful bacteria.”
Acidifiers also help newly weaned pigs break down feed in their gut because they lack the ability to produce enough acid to do it themselves.
“If we can provide some acidifiers to the diet or through water, then we’re making digestion a lot easier on that pig,” she explained. “Weaning can be somewhat stressful, and this really helps get these pigs started.”
Prebiotics and probiotics
Carroll uses prebiotics and probiotics to maintain a balance of good and bad bacteria in the GI tract.
“Prebiotics are used to help promote the growth of that good bacteria, almost like fertilizer for the good bacteria in the GI tract,” she explained. “Probiotics are the good bacteria themselves. Lots of times these are live culture or live organisms that we are utilizing.”
Both products are used in times of stress, including enteric disease challenges and weaning, when there’s a disruption in the gut microflora.
Nutritional supplements
“We utilize nutritional supplements in many cases when pigs just aren’t feeling well,” Carroll said. “It could be from the stress of weaning, for example, or when they’re undergoing disease challenges.”
This is especially true for younger pigs who don’t have a lot of energy reserves to use when sick.
“In cases of diarrhea, there could be a lot of fluid loss,” she said. “We need to try to replace those electrolytes, replace the nutrition in these animals and keep them hydrated so we can keep them going. Nursing piglets and weaned pigs require a lot of energy to nurse and to get up to the feeder and drinker.”
Crossover to commercial
Depending on the situation, Carroll prescribes these products in commercial systems, too.
“We utilize a lot of these products, either to replace some antibiotics or in conjunction with antibiotics,” she explained. “They’re a nice supplement.
“And certainly, from an animal-welfare standpoint, I think it improves how we’re handling our pigs when they’re going through some stress.”
Veterinary oversight continues to be important to make sure these products are used correctly, Carroll added.
Water doesn’t get the attention it deserves because it is abundant, easy to access and inexpensive, but that will change in the future, said John Patience, PhD, professor at Iowa State University.
DISCOVERIES, Issue 18: Obtaining cycle threshold (Ct) values based on processing fluids provides a practical way to identify neonatal pigs at risk for nursery mortality associated with PRRS and can help determine when vaccination is worthwhile.
Multi-disciplinary collaboration by academia, industry partners and the veterinary community is improving the diagnostics for and management of S. suis.
DISCOVERIES, Issue 21: A recent analysis of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) genetic sequences shows that up to 25% of field strains are recombinants of diverse genotypes, highlighting the importance of broad protection when selecting a PCV2 vaccine.
According to research, swine influenza A viruses have become more complicated in recent years. There is a great deal of diversity within the influenza virus.
The “Five Freedoms” have been the foundation for establishing sound animal welfare practices since they were developed in 1965. Now, more than 50 years later, researchers have additional tools and technologies to take that basic knowledge a step further.
DISCOVERIES, Issue 19: PRRS has been described as one of the most important swine diseases of the last half-century. An estimated 20% to 25% of herds are still affected, and the syndrome remains the US swine industry’s most costly disease.
In the end, raising hogs is about producing pork, and continuous success depends on building customers’ trust, listening to expectations and meeting their needs.
Biosecurity protocols are critical to keeping the US hog herd healthy, and one of the regular tasks is to disinfect a wide range of supplies entering the farm, but how effective are those protocols?
A romanticized view of the veterinary profession, gleaned from sources like the famous Brit, James Herriot’s novel “All Creatures Great and Small,” doesn’t always mesh with the reality.
Pain management for pigs has always been a challenge, partly because it’s difficult to measure levels of pain and partly because there are no FDA-approved drugs labeled for pain management in pigs.
Piglet processing fluids have been shown to be a practical, time-efficient and affordable diagnostic tool for PRRS, and some indications suggest that PCV2 offers promise as well.
US pork producers should strive to produce influenza-negative pigs if they want to see the benefits of increased productivity, reduced secondary infections and antibiotic use, reduced influenza dissemination, decreased influenza diversity and reduced risk of zoonotic infections.
The farrowing room is a demanding place — one that needs to accommodate the divergent needs of a 500+-pound sow and her 10, 15 or 20 piglets weighing anywhere from 1.5 to 3 pounds.
COVID-19’s global-altering tentacles reached the 2020 Allen D. Leman Swine Conference scheduled Sept. 19-22. This year’s conference will be held virtually.
The first case of Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus (Strep. zoo) was identified in the US pig population last fall, and it’s not an organism to be taken lightly.
Sow mortality has been on the rise in the US pork industry, reaching upwards of 15% in many sow-production systems, said Ashley Johnson, DVM, technical services veterinarian with Zoetis.
Whether the issue is an emerging disease such as porcine epidemic diarrhea or the threat of African swine fever, being prepared is key to minimizing the potential impact on the US swine herd and expediting the recovery.
Veterinarians deal with stress under the best circumstances. But in this time of difficult decisions for pork producers and those who service them due to COVID-19, maintaining mental health is even more of a concern.
Nine years of data from the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project show farms with air-filtering systems have fewer outbreaks of PRRS than farms without filters.
For both the sow and piglet, an animal that does not perform to its potential or falls behind its counterparts will negatively impact the sow farm’s productivity and profitability.
Clinical problems in swine due to antimicrobial-resistant infections are rare. In fact, patterns of resistance in swine have been stable for a long time.
Many sow farms have undergone M. hyo elimination within their breeding herd, which makes it critical to understand the potential transmission risk from boar studs.
Few things remain the same for long on a hog farm. By the very nature of today’s production system, pigs are continuously moving on or off a site. One thing that remains constant is Strep suis.
Effective PCV2 control relies on vaccination of healthy pigs before they become infected. This goal cannot be accomplished in unstable herds whose sows give birth to viremic pigs.
Porcine circovirus type 2 is the principal etiological agent of porcine circovirus associated disease (PCVAD), which can cost producers an estimated $3 to $4 per pig.
Streptococcus suis (Strep suis) is becoming more prevalent and more complex in US swine herds. The coccoid-shaped, Gram-positive bacterium is also a zoonotic disease, capable of transmission from pigs to humans.
When it comes to porcine reproductive and respiratory virus it’s important for the veterinarian and farm personnel to know the health status of a herd or barn.
PCV3 was first reported in 2016, but appears to have been present in swine populations decades prior to that time. PCV3 strains are similar to one another but are very different from PCV2.
Renewed interest in M. hyo and its impact on herd health and performance has prompted producers and veterinarians to re-evaluate control strategies for the costly bacterial disease.
An effective biosecurity strategy is not a stagnant process. It is continuously influenced by changes in pig-flows, disease pressures, virus evolution, emerging health issues and more.
PRRSV is constantly evolving, resulting in an extremely diverse virus with multiple lineages, but building a better understanding of that genetic diversity is the next step to making real progress against the disease.
Classical education emphasizes the need for industries to adopt new technologies to keep up with external demands and constantly changing economic environments.
The US pork industry is challenging under the best of circumstances, with enough variables to make even astute, savvy businesspeople cautious. However, one of the biggest components of a successful, healthy operation is human capital.
The first lesson of biosecurity, according to Andrea Pitkin, DVM, health assurance veterinarian for PIC, is to learn, modify and adapt because new threats can surface at any time.
One in three pigs born on US farms fail to reach market, according to Jason Ross, PhD, a professor of animal physiology at Iowa State University and director of the Iowa Pork Industry Center.
