New products at World Pork Expo boost pig health

Innovations come in big and small packages — and even in the cloud. The World Pork Expo 2023, held in Des Moines, Iowa, provided an excellent opportunity to showcase new products for pork producers. Here are five that caught my eye.

WashRail is a patent-pending, wean-to-harvest barn washer from Swine Robotics. The hoisted pressure washer makes washing barns easier because it moves across the barn's length via a ceiling track. Swine Robotics claims the automated pressure washer reduces labor needed to clean barns and reduces the opportunity for disease transfer between humans and swine equipment. The product is currently available. Visit swinerobotics.com for more information.

Agistics is a full-service logistics platform from DPtechlink that gives farmers better oversight on deliveries and biosecurity. The software integrates with existing mill management programs to plan or schedule feed deliveries, receive updates, and track delivery with built-in GPS.

Farmers can also use the software to create a checklist for drivers to guide them on deliveries or to create truck maintenance checklists. The biosecurity portion of the platform allows farmers to set avoidance zones or to use USDA and regulatory biohazard zones, which will reroute drivers to avoid contact with any viruses or disease outbreaks in the area. Farmers can also verify sanitation and washed vehicles on their farms by having drivers upload wash receipts.

You can receive daily verification and warning alerts through the Agistics mobile app. All data collected also has cloud storage capabilities. The platform was recently announced in April and is available to farmers. To learn more visit agistics.com.

Farmers won't have to worry about spending hours lifting each piglet in the farrowing barn to orally vaccinate them for Lawsonia intracellularis and Salmonella, common bacterial intestinal diseases found in barns. Producers will now have the option to vaccinate with an oral gel application of Boehringer Ingelheim's Enterisol Ileitis and Enterisol Salmonella T/C vaccines.

Producers can administer the vaccine through a backpack sprayer. Each pump delivers a prescribed amount onto a comfort mat to piglets at three weeks’ of age while in their farrowing crates. In company research trials, application of the vaccine took under four minutes to treat a 48-crate barn. The trials also found that piglets gravitated to the gel's pink coloring and dipped their snouts into the administered amount on the mat. This product will be available in 2024. To learn more, visit bianimalhealth.com

One of the many challenges pork producers face daily is animal disease. Purina's EnduraPig is a new feed additive for pork farmers to manage disease in barns. EnduraPig supports respiratory and immune systems by limiting the viral load of a virus like PRRS. Last year, in research trials by the Purina Animal Nutrition team, ailing piglets fed the additive had almost a 4-pound improvement in body weight. Piglets also had a 14% increase in overall average daily gain at 21 days post-recovery, according to the trials. This product was announced earlier this year and is available at local Purina distributors. For more information, visit purinamills.com

Summer temperatures mean cranking barn fans to cool down sows and feeders. AP, an AGCO brand, has added a 24-inch fan to its Commander fan line. The fan features speed control for optimal flow at 10 volts and doesn't have belts or pulleys. AP offers farmers remote access to Commander fans with the brand's mobile Edge control system. This product is available at AP distributors. For more information, visit automatedproduction.com.