Minister Bibeau announces support to help spur innovation for Quebec pork producers

Jun 03, 2021

Québec, QC – While speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the Éleveurs de porcs du Québec, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced over $922,000 through the AgriScience Program for two Quebec pork organizations, which will help advance innovation within the sector.

Swine Innovation Porc is receiving up to $356,525 to improve swine health in Canada by developing a new vaccine against Streptococcus suis to reduce the use of antimicrobials and expand strain coverage.

The Centre de développement du porc du Québec (CDPQ) is receiving up to $565,562 for a research project aimed at reducing nitrogen output while maintaining growth performance and meat quality.

Quebec pork producers continue to adopt cutting-edge approaches and technologies to enhance their competitiveness and position themselves for a strong and vibrant future, while responding to the challenges brought by COVID-19.

Source : Government of Canada

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”

Minister Bibeau announces support to help spur innovation for Quebec pork producers

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Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

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