Animal Well-being
Pork Checkoff Research
Research is at the heart of the National Pork Board’s mission and is funded by your Pork Checkoff dollars. Research is administered in all areas of pork production, processing, and human nutrition to develop a higher quality and more profitable product in the competitive meat protein market.
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Animal Well-being
Using Behavioral and Genomic Tools to Identify Pigs Suited for Group Living
In pigs, social behaviors, such as fighting, can affect the performance of all pigs in a group or result in injury or lameness, leading to culling. Expanding genetic selection programs beyond...
Animal Science - Swine Nutrition
Improving milk production efficiency and mitigating feed costs in lactating sows through dietary crude protein abatement and crystalline amino acid supplementation under thermo neutral and thermal stress environment model
Objectives:To determine if lactating sows can be fed diets containing less protein in order to reduce the quantity of nitrogen excreted into the environment. To determine if sows fed...
Pork Safety - Pre-Harvest
Salmonella serovar distribution and persistence in finisher sites
There is a paucity of data explaining the persistence ofSalmonella serovars on swine...
Animal Science - Breeding & Genetics
Genome-wide association meta-analysis of experimental populations to identify QTL for pork quality and validation in commercial populations
Scientists working to better understand the underlying genetic control of pork quality traits; typically take very detailed measurements on animals in experimental herds, often called populations....
Environment - Air
Feeding amino acids to reduce air emissions and the carbon footprint of swine production
Reduced crude protein (CP) diets with synthetic amino acid (AA) supplementation has proven to be an effect way to reduce ammonia (NH3) emissions from swine housing. However, there are very...
Environment - Air
Meta-Analysis of H2S, NH3, VOCs, PM10 and PM2.5 Emissions from Swine Production Facilities in North America
Industry Summary:Air emissions from livestock production facilities are receiving increased attention due to potential human health and environmental implications. The goal of this project...
Pork Safety - Pre-Harvest
Epidemiology of STEC in Swine
Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are important foodborne pathogens. Although most STEC infections in humans are attributed to beef products, outbreaks of STEC have been associated with...
Swine Health - General Disease
Culture-independent analysis of microbial communities in tonsils of healthy, carrier, and diseased pigs
Many bacterial pathogens of pigs can be found in the tonsils, and the tonsils can act as a reservoir for these pathogens, allowing them to persist in a herd. The goal of this study was to...
Animal Science - Swine Nutrition
Regulation of Amino Acid Transport Efficiency by the Porcine Mammary Gland
Industry Summary: Modern swine production systems require highly productive animals. Thus, continued development of nutritional strategies to improve milk production and litter weight gain is...
