Tools for managing pigs without antibiotics
Raising pigs without antibiotics requires extra management and different tools compared to traditional commercial hog production.
Prepare for pork-processing cutbacks caused by COVID-19
Fallout from coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) continues to affect the pork industry’s workforce, especially in pork processing.
Resurgent Mycoplasma hyorhinis causes debilitating arthritis in late finishing
Infectious arthritis caused by Mycoplasma hyorhinis is gaining ground in hog units where it infects neonatal pigs and develops into severe lameness in market hogs.
Rotavirus infections lower weaned-pig weights by a pound
Rotavirus infections in pigs have been around for decades. But in the last several years, the virus has re-appeared.
COVID-19 prompts hog farms, veterinary clinics to limit contact for workers’ health
The disease causing the greatest concern in the pork industry today is not a swine disease but a human one — coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).
Four Star Veterinary Service Pork Industry Conference CANCELLED
The 2020 Pork Industry Conference organized by Four Star Veterinary Service is cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deadly swine-disease outbreak at buying station triggers search for mystery pathogen
When a call came in last September reporting very high, unexplained sow mortalities, Daniel Gascho, DVM, didn’t expect it to be anything unusual, but he found quite the opposite.
8 key factors drive success when raising pigs without antibiotics
Producers need to recognize there will always be health challenges when raising pigs without antibiotics. The goal is to resolve those challenges as they arise.
Michigan switches to pen gestation; Ohio is next
Hog operations in Michigan faced an April 1, 2020, deadline for switching from individual stalls to pens for sow gestation.
Tips to improve pen gestation for sows
Many pork producers successfully manage sows in group gestation pens after completing breeding and pregnancy checks in crates. Veterinarians with Four Star Veterinary Service (FSVS)
Lessons learned: How a modern hog farm in Russia recovered from ASF
China’s African swine fever (ASF) epidemic may offer a grim view of life with the disease. But its neighbor Russia has proven recovery from ASF is possible.
Keep guard up for strep, parasuis in newly weaned pigs
Newly weaned pigs face many challenges — new environment, feed, pen mates. They also face the challenge of bacterial infections like strep and parasuis.
