“The size of the virus isn't as important [to make a vaccine], it’s how complex it is. Coronavirus and Circovirus are not very complex. African Swine Fever and Pseudorabies are complex.” – Christopher Chase

Our guest is Dr. Christopher Chase. Dr. Chase is Professor from the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, South Dakota State University (SDSU), he is a native of Sisseton, SD, and attended SDSU. He received his DVM from Iowa State University (1980) and MS (1987) and Ph.D. (1990) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was an associate at the Viborg Veterinary Clinic, Viborg, SD, for 5 years and continued his active involvement in clinical veterinary medicine for 25 years. He is the past president of the South Dakota Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Veterinary Immunologists, and past chair of the AVMA Council of Biologics and Therapeutic Agents (COBTA). He is serving as president of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists until 2018. He was the South Dakota Veterinarian of the Year in 2009 and received the FO Butler Excellence in Research Award in 2010 and Outstanding Leadership in Undergraduate Research in 2011 from SDSU.

What you will learn:

• Definition of herd immunity;
• Meaning of R-naught/R-zero;
• What he would do if in charge of the pandemic situation;
• How to apply this knowledge to pig production;
• What can you do today to improve herd immunity at the farm level from a practical standpoint;
• What separates successful swine professionals from those that are not.

Chris’ favorite swine-related book: Diseases of Swine

Chris’ favorite book in general: Falling Upward and The Return of the Prodigal Son

This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.

“You know what those maximum performances are for average daily gain, and we have very good models for that. If I go to 90% or 87% percent or whatever that number is, how slow can I bring those pigs, and what’s the impact on feed efficiency?” – Dr. Chad Hastad

Our guest is Dr. Chad Hastad, with Bachelor’s degree in Animal Sciences (South Dakota State University) and a Masters and Ph.D. in Swine Nutrition (Kansas State University). Currently, director of nutrition, research, and operational support at New Fashion Pork.

What you will learn:

• Thoughts on the gut microbiome and pellet quality;
• Feed mitigation strategies;
• Sow replacement models;
• Advice for young swine professionals;
• Challenging the status quo;
• How can allied industry help, right now?

This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.

For knowledge and news in the Global Swine Industry, access our partner thepigsite.com

“These algorithms are oftentimes much better than humans at finding patterns from massive amounts of data. One algorithm predicts mortality events a week in advance and it warns users that they're going to have a problem a week ahead of these mortality events happening.” – Chris Bomgaars

Our guest is Chris Bomgaars. Chris grew up in Orange City, Iowa, and in 2008, he saw an opportunity to join the family pork production business. As he began to buy and raise feeder pigs, he saw the writing on the wall; it was time to go big or go out of business. The venture was a success and scaled from about 30 farms to over 350 farms and started raising over 1.5 million pigs per year (2018). As the company grew, so did the problems — from spiking death loss to sinking caregiver morale. In search of an answer to his company’s issues, Chris searched for a market solution, but none existed. That’s when he founded EveryPig, a pig health and production management platform.

What you will learn:

• Telemedicine and how can it be of benefit in the age of Coronavirus, ASF;
• The status of antimicrobial resistance and where it’s going;
• His thoughts on the ongoing rural veterinary shortage;
• Managing change throughout a pig production system;
• Artificial intelligence in pork production: current status and where is it going;
• What separates successful swine professionals from those that are not.

Bomgaars’ favorite swine-related resource: Swine it Podcast (thanks for the plug Chris).

Bomgaars’ favorite book in general: AI Superpowers

This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.

Pig production, nutrition, COVID-19, and research, with Phil Hord from Hord Livestock.

“A lot of the contributing factors to mortality for both an infectious and non-infectious standpoint occur early on in that pigs’ life. Piglet birth weight, colostrum management, weaning age… those factors do have long-term impacts on the animal. It's the combination of this intertwined, extremely complicated, matrix that ultimately results in the observed mortality.” – Dr. Jordan Gebhardt. Today's episode will cover “Wean-to-finish mortality: infectious causes”. Our guest is Dr. Jordan Gebhardt. Dr. Gebhardt graduated with high honor from Michigan State University with a B.S. in Animal Science and was a member of the Honor’s College. Also, Jordan completed two internships in the animal health and nutrition industries. He completed both his DVM and Ph.D. (swine nutrition) at Kansas State University in 2019 and currently holds a post-doc position at K-State. What you will learn: Systems-based overview of infectious etiologies; Intervention-based overview; Rapid-fire questions: short questions about depopulation, elimination, infectious agents. This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.

“You can have a state-of-the-art research facility or even the best ideas in the world. But if you don't have a good research staff at the slat level you don't have much. It's about people, and the role of the research staff is to accurately collect data at the farm and transfer that information timely to key stakeholders.” – Dr. Aaron Gaines.

Today’s episode will cover “Driving Innovation in a swine production system”.

Our guest is Dr. Aaron Gaines. Dr. Aaron Gaines is a Managing Partner for Ani-Tek. Dr. Gaines completed his Bachelors in Agriculture, Masters in Animal Science, and Doctorate in Animal Science degrees at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Prior to Ani-Tek, Dr. Gaines held positions at Professional Swine Management, United Animal Health, and The Maschhoffs. Dr. Gaines has been in the swine industry for nearly 20 years and as Managing Partner of Ani-Tek, he is focused on product development and supporting new products into the marketplace for livestock.

What you will learn:

• Prioritizing research ideas;
• Connecting research results to company profitability;
• Measure mortality/morbidity from a large-scale research standpoint;
• The role of the research staff;
• What separates successful swine professionals from those that are not.

Gaines’ favorite swine-related book: Feed Efficiency in Swine

Gaines’ favorite book in general: Trump: The Art of the Deal

This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.

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“Part of what I understand is happening is the foodservice buy bellies at 40 lb boxes. That stops. Retail goes in 1-lb packages. The system isn't geared up to do all those 1-lb packages. It's a redistribution. And that's is just an example of the challenge we have.” – Jim Long.

Today’s episode will cover “Global economy right now and how that affects pig producers”.

Our guest is Jim Long. Jim is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. He is responsible for the direction of Genesus, drives change and sets the strategy and vision for the company, overseeing day to day business of running and managing the company. Genesus is one of the major swine genetic companies globally with production in North America Europe and Asia.

What you will learn:

• What is going on with the global economy;
• Packing plant closures;
• Where will we be 12 months from now;
• Issues and challenges for the swine industry;
• What separates successful swine professionals from those that are not.

Jim’s favorite swine-related book: Pig Health

Jim’s favorite book in general: Good to Great

This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.

“Really just driving home how important it is to practice social distancing even at the farm... Maybe that means staggering the start of the shift for each staff member as well as the break time so they are not congregating in the break room.” – Dr. Heather Fowler.

Today’s episode will cover “COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions for pig producers”.

Our guest is Dr. Heather Fowler. Dr. Fowler completed her Veterinary Medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 2010, a Master in Public Health in Applied Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health in 2011, and a Ph.D. in Environmental and Occupational Hygiene from the University of Washington School of Public Health in 2017. She is board certified in veterinary preventive medicine and has expertise in the areas of zoonotic disease, public health, worker safety and health, and One Health application. In the summer of 2017, Dr. Fowler began work as the Director of Producer and Public Health at the National Pork Board where she oversees public health as well as occupational safety and health issues as they relate to swine production in the United States.

What you will learn:

• COVID-19 and pigs;
• How is COVID-19 affecting pig producers from a business and farm level;
• What separates successful swine professionals from those that are not.

Heather’s favorite swine-related book: Diseases of Swine 11th Edition

Heather’s favorite book in general: Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook

This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.

I wanted to introduce you to the Swine.it Podcast Roundtable. This is a new series of episodes envisioned by Provimi and Swine.it, where we will have bonus episodes in a roundtable format with experts of the global swine industry tackling subjects that can influence the producer’s bottom line.

On this first episode, I chatted with Dr. Chad Pilcher and Mark Hulsebus, both from Provimi, about “Pig production in times of economic uncertainty”.

Here are the highlights:

• COVID-19 situation and shifts among pig producers;

• Thoughts on managing a pork production business under economic uncertainty;

• The biggest aspects producers should consider right now from a nutrition standpoint;

• Overview on managing pig growth if/when packing plants reduce the number of shifts;

• Tips on maintaining lean operations and having cash reserves;

• Formulating for maximum profit versus minimum cost per kg of gain.

This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.

“[…] There was no collaboration, tremendous conflict of interest and led to the quotation from the late Dr. Mike Murtaugh that “veterinary science is an oxymoron”. That was clearly true. It was very depressing. I am glad that has improved and we have seen improvement across many fronts.” – Dr. Scott Dee.

Today’s episode will cover “Swine veterinary applied research: the last 30 years and what the future holds”.

Our guest is Dr. Scott Dee. Dr. Dee earned his DVM, MS, and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He is a board-certified veterinary microbiologist and a past President of the AASV. After working in swine practice for 12 years, Scott was a Professor at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine where he focused his research on the transmission and biosecurity of PRRSV for a 12-year period. In 2011, Scott joined Pipestone Veterinary Services in Pipestone, MN where he currently serves as Director of Pipestone Applied Research.

What you will learn:

• History of swine veterinary research in the last 30 years;
• Biggest lessons learned;
• Common mistakes that you see in today’s research;
• Veterinary epidemiology experience, could it help in the COVID-19 situation?
• Swine vet research going in the next 5 to 10 years;
• What separates successful swine professionals from those that are not.

Scott’s favorite poultry-related book: Winnie-The-Pooh

Scott’s favorite book in general: All Creatures Great And Small

This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.

Best regards,

Márcio Gonçalves, DVM, PhD