When losses and costs from poor health threaten the current and future farm profitability, perhaps a “clean slate” should be considered.

With the main genetic lines' rapid improvement in terms of prolificacy, feed conversion ratio, and other production parameters, the reference requirements for vitamins and minerals have become outdated.

Looking inside our pigs to learn more about their future.

Oral vaccination in pigs, previously limited to enteric pathogens, is emerging as an innovative strategy against respiratory diseases. By building on the potential of the Common Mucosal Immune System (CMIS), new formulations can trigger immune responses in distant mucosal sites starting from the gut.

August brought a welcome breather to the German pig market.

A stew of grains with an abundance of ingredients, but seasoned with risks that could sour the overall dish.

By exploring the mechanisms of the Common Mucosal Immune System (CMIS), orally administered vaccines are capable of activating coordinated immune responses across different mucosal sites in the body. In this content, we explain how local activation in the GALT triggers protective effects in distant mucosal tissues, such as the respiratory tract, thereby expanding the reach of immune protection.

Reducing costs in pig feed formulation depends not on a single action, but on the strategic integration of multiple factors: precision in formulation, ingredient selection, use of technologies, and efficient management of the nutrition model and purchasing.

In healthy animals, PCV2 stays under the radar, causing little harm. But with coinfections that activate the immune system, the virus replicates more and becomes more damaging.

Unusual drop in July and August of more than 17 cents, and it is expected to continue to fall.

After weaning, endogenous hydrochloric acid production is still limited, which raises stomach pH and compromises pepsin activity, affecting protein digestibility and favoring pathogen growth.

This second article from the WelfarePIGnet project describes practices for improving pig access to feed and drinking water, including the costs of implementing them.

The opportunities are real, but several challenges are holding the industry back.

How does heat stress affect animal growth and meat quality?

We need a container for syringes, needles, medicine bottles, sprays, and markers. Sometimes you see improvised and inadequate containers on farms, but the one presented here is very simple and functional.

This installment focuses on the effects of heat stress on sow fertility.

When we manage errors systematically, we stop punishing symptoms and start addressing the real causes.

Pigs are particularly vulnerable to heat stress due to their limited ability to dissipate body heat and genetic selection for higher productivity, which has reduced their heat tolerance. Improved technical results increase heat production, and today's lines produce 30% more heat than those in the 1980s.

Guillem Burset explains the reasons for the exceptional drop in pig prices in Spain during July.

In this installment, we will discover how heat stress affects the digestive tract of pigs.

Genetic improvement is key in livestock production, playing an essential role in achieving a modern, efficient, and sustainable pig production model.

Chronic inflammation is one of the main challenges in modern pig production, affecting intestinal health, productive performance, and feed efficiency. In light of increasing pressure to reduce antibiotic use, functional nutrition emerges as a key tool.

The good domestic crop contrasts with global uncertainty: currency, geopolitics, and funds continue to drive prices in the short and long term.

This IFIP study provides unprecedented results on methane reduction using a slurry cooling system, not previously published by other teams.

In the first quarter of 2025, European pig trade continued to be marked by an increase in Spanish imports of piglets and finishing pigs.

Implementing precision feeding through the use of electronic feeders improves sow and piglet performance while providing economic, environmental, and animal welfare benefits.

Professor Nauwynck has been researching PCV2 virus since the emergence of PCV2-associated diseases. PCV2 caused a serious crisis in global swine health that was ultimately addressed through the development and mass deployment of effective PCV2 vaccines. He is an excellent connoisseur of this small virus that continues to surprise us.

Digestive diseases in pigs that were previously addressed individually, targeting a single pathogen, now form a digestive disease complex that we must confront from various angles.

Hans Nauwynck defines himself as a veterinary virologist, a person who works in a laboratory setting, doing precise work, like a surgeon, aiming to gain a better understanding of how animal viruses interact with their target cells. But it is much more. His deep understanding of the biological behavior of viruses allows him to fluently explain many of the “whys” that are so important for a better understading of the pathogenesis of viral diseases and the development of effective control strategies.

Communication in the swine industry today faces a double challenge. On the one hand, there is a real need to transparently show the sector's work to an increasingly distrustful consumer, who is either uninformed or saturated with emotional messages. On the other hand, we must do so in a changing digital environment, which rewards the authentic, the emotional, and the useful.

One of the major challenges during weaning is post-weaning diarrhea, impacting nearly 25% of piglets in European countries. A promising strategy to boost resilience and help piglets navigate the stress of weaning can be, among others, the use of phytogenics.

Spanish slaughterhouses are between a rock and a hard place. The heat will accentuate the supply shortage. Pig prices are increasing or staying the same, pork prices are decreasing, and consequently, margins are deteriorating.

This is how one of the Tosh Pork farms in the United States works, combining technology, production efficiency, and social commitment. In this first article, we present the structure, work culture, and overview of U.S. swine production.

The study confirms the negative impact of both chronic and acute heat stress on feed intake in lactating sows and validates nutritional and management strategies to mitigate it.

Price expectations vary by continent.

On December 6, 2024, the final trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur was signed. This agreement is considered historic due to its magnitude, creating a goods and services market of approximately 800 million consumers and representing a quarter of the global GDP.

Who talks about inflammation? We all might mention it when we exercise too much – aching joints, stiffness – or is it just we are all getting older…? But we do not really talk about inflammation much. And certainly, when we think about our livestock, we do not really mention it at all. Well…we should.

PRRS control measures also reduce the opportunities for different wild-type viruses to recombine and create more aggressive strains.

Genetic mutation and evolution of PRRSV can occur across all genes. Unlike ORF5, which only represents about 4% of the PRRSV genome, NGS can recover a whole PRRSV genome to be used in epidemiological investigations.

In this commentary, we review various issues affecting the swine market: the blackout in Spain, corporate concentration, the evolution of carcass weights, Trump's policy....

How does heat stress affect our pigs? This four-part question-and-answer series will give us an in-depth understanding of this key aspect of pig production.

Weaning is one of the most difficult periods in a pig’s production cycle. A deeper understanding of the challenges piglets face, as well as the short- and long-term consequences of low feed intake, can help nutritionists formulate their diets to better support growth and improve health.

The UK ships around 7,000 tonnes of pig meat to the US annually, making it the fourth largest destination for UK product. The vast majority of this is made up of loins, fore-ends and bellies.

Fewer losses, lower medication costs, and a better feed conversion ratio result in a 100% ROI on this depopulation-repopulation project.

Two models of exoskeletons were tested on farms to evaluate whether they improved working conditions during piglet vaccination.

The market is hyper-reactive, reacting to every piece of news in one direction or another. Let's try to focus on it.

Mammals, such as pigs, have a keen attraction to sweet tastes. They are able to perceive the five basic tastes: umami, sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. Sugars such as sucrose, glucose, and lactose are especially attractive to them. This trait seems to have evolved as a natural mechanism for detecting high-calorie energy sources.

In 2024, the Latin American swine industry continued to show outstanding performance, reaffirming its potential, resilience, and capacity to adapt to the challenges facing the sector in a complex market environment. However, given the current geopolitical circumstances, reconfiguration of international pork trade flows in Latin America is expected in 2025 as a result of retaliation against the tariffs imposed by the United States.

The past five years have been a turbulent period for the UK pork industry, shaped by the intersecting challenges of Brexit, COVID-19 and global economic and geopolitical pressures.

Customs tariffs have major consequences and affect pig farms worldwide.

Low-dose acidification of liquid manure is a novel approach that could be a flexible and cost-effective technology for climate action.

Guillem Burset analyzes the situation in the Spanish market and the possible effects of Trump's tariff policy on pork trade.

The use of dietary fiber in sow nutrition is rapidly evolving and is now considered a functional component in nutrition due to its effects on gut functionality, microbiota balance, and the modulation of digestion and metabolism.

The first three years of the Danish PRRS reduction strategy have shown that it is possible to control and reduce the prevalence of PRRS in Danish pig production.

Phosphorus is an essential mineral for bone mineralization, energy metabolism, and nucleic acid synthesis. Therefore, strategies to maximize the utilization of phosphorus present in cereals and legumes used in swine nutrition are important, such as the use of phytases. This data sheet describes the structure, types, mechanism of action, and application of phytases.

We are sharing an example of a sow card used to record basic breeding sow data, which is essential on all farms regardless of their size.

In the first two months, the outbreak caused more than 600 abortions and more than 150 sow deaths, destroying the weekly batch structure.

The pig price in Spain is well above the rest of the European countries. The reality is that this price is only possible at the expense of negative margins in the slaughterhouses.

The pig industry in Africa holds great potential as a key driver for food security, income generation, and rural development. However, it faces several challenges that hinder its growth and sustainability.

The last of the three summaries by Antonio Palomo dedicated to the 2024 edition of the Allen D. Leman Conference focuses on health: biosecurity and viral and bacterial diseases.