By Bruce Cochrane
A Camrose based swine veterinarian reports changes made in the processing of blood plasmas used in pig starter diets are helping restore confidence in these products.
In March and April representatives of Alberta Pork, the Alberta government and industry veterinarians met with representatives of American Protein Corporation to review changes made in the processing of plasma products used in starter diets for pigs to ensure confidence in these products.
Dr. Frank Marshall, with Marshall Swine Health Services, told Alberta Pork's monthly PED update yesterday, the only type of plasma product for use in swine available from APC in Canada is of bovine origin from its Calgary plant.
Dr. Frank Marshall-Marshall Swine Health Services:
The Calgary plant is totally divided for either swine whole blood delivered or bovine plasma.
The plasma is already spun down at the kill plant prior to shipment to APC's plant in Calgary.
In Calgary the trucks are dedicated by species, the trucks and plant receptacles differ in color and code and type between the two species so it's difficult to make a mistake there.
The Calgary plant, now at this point, has been testing bovine plasma for PED virus as well as for porcine DNA just to validate that there's no crossover of product.
Tests to date are negative for PED for both porcine and bovine origin at the plant.
APC has made it mandatory now that all processed plasma product has to sit for a minimum of 14 days at 20 degrees prior to movement to customers and this is 7 days longer than demonstrated to neutralize the virus.
We're getting a better understanding of what's currently in place and certainly out west here there's more confidence in the use of bovine plasma products at this time.
Dr. Marshall says the next planned step will be the use of photo purification using intense UV light and liquid turbulence to kill any kind of pathogen, including anything we don't yet know about, to prevent any future concerns with the use of blood plasmas.
Source: Farmscape