VOL. 16 ISSUE 4 | WINTER 2014

A P E R I O D I C N E W S L E T T E R P R O D U C E D B Y G R A N D V A L L E Y F O R T I F I E R S L T D .Swine GristSwine Grist

Ian Ross, President & CEO | Jim Ross, ChairmanClarke Walker, VP & COO Dr. Martin Clunies, Monogastric NutritionistDavid Ross/Patti Bobier, Publishers

Jim Ross, Chairman

Dear friends,

PEDv UpdateThe very contagious PED viral disease is still very present across 32 US States. Ever since it was first diagnosed in the USA in early April of 2013, PEDv has resulted in the loss of thousands of piglets. Originally it was determined that the disease was spread exclusively through farm vehicles, dead stock trucks, feed trucks, sales yards and people moving from farm to farm without disinfecting footwear. With such a devastating disease on the prowl, producers soon learned that biosecurity is of extreme importance in keeping this disease under control. However, as more about this disease has become known it has also been found that the virus can be carried on the wind for up to 10 miles from one infected operation to another. It has also become widely known that feed contaminated with the virus can also spread the disease. One of the suspect contamination methods for feeds has been spray dried porcine blood plasma which is a manufactured byproduct from blood available from hog slaughter plants.

During the summer of 2013 weekly reports of newly infected swine herds which had been diagnosed across the USA were circulated. These reports are still available today. At the peak of the transmission we saw the numbers of newly infected herds rise up to 325 per week. Presently, in the US there are about 60–75 newly infected herds per week. This is still a significant number.

Canada has fared much better. Across our country we have experienced a total of 64 infected herds. One of these was in P.E.I, 2 in Quebec, 4 in Manitoba but none in Saskatchewan or Alberta. Ontario has recorded 57 infected herds. Of all the infected herds there are only a few that are still seeing some re-infections. It would appear that this disease should be able to be eradicated from Canada. We believe that bringing this disease under control has been the result of diligent management, communications, transparency and co-operation from producers, veterinarians and industry people. This has been a wonderful demonstration of what can be accomplished when all parties involved work together for the common good. We especially want to commend our veterinarians who provided outstanding professional leadership with this extraordinary challenge.

However, we must remain diligent in maintaining high bio-security protocols, especially as winter returns in Canada. Those who have experienced an outbreak know the frustration and the hard work required to return their herds to a negative status.

Because of our own unfortunate experience at Grand Valley Fortifiers, we decided, in February, to no longer include dried porcine plasma or any other product derived from the pork industry in our nursery feeds; as was the case for our premixes for many years. Shortly after our nursery feeds recall we were able to introduce our new plasma free BioSure™ line of complete early wean starters and our new, late stage nursery Bionic® and BioForce® starter premixes. These new BioSure nursery feeds are performing extremely well and producers can be assured that with these rations they are taking a big step in mitigating the risk of the PED virus entering their operation from contaminated feed.

We have all learned a great deal about PEDv, the serious ramifications of breaking with this disease, what needs to be done to prevent its spread and the vari-ous procedures which need to be followed to rid it from infected herds.

Wishing you good farming, Jim Ross & Staff

GRAND VALLEY FORTIFIERS LTD.PO Box 726 Cambridge ON N1R 5W6 1-800-567-4400 www.grandvalley.com

A round this time last year, we began working with Actlabs Agriculture, located in Ancaster,

Ontario for our grain mycotoxin analysis. For many of you who have already received reports, you can see that this

lab is very progressive, testing for 15 toxins currently, while the majority of other labs only test for the big three toxins. The number of mycotoxin metabolites tested in our mycotoxin screens is expected to increase further. This detailed information provides us with a better understanding of the association between toxins and what we observe on farm. It will also allow us to predict what symptoms a farm may experience with a particular toxin or blend of toxins (ex. impaired immune function).

Laboratory results for this year’s crop are flooding into the laboratory and Deoxynivalenol (better known as DON or Vomitoxin) is the toxin of greatest concern this year. High DON content is not just limited to

ONTARIO MYCOTOXIN UPDATE by: BRUCE SCHUMANNB.Sc. (Agric.), M.Sc., Monogastric Nutritionist, Grand Valley Fortifiers

New PEDv Case Reports by Week in U.S.A.

corn, but has stretched across to barley, mixed grains, wheat and wheat shorts. The most apparent observation is that DON numbers are consistently inconsistent. This year there are geographic areas with very good quality grain and other areas with very poor quality grain, resulting in variability in the concentration of toxins.

Obviously, the regionalized summer and fall weather patterns we experienced this year have had a direct impact on the buildup of toxins during this year’s crop production. Southwestern Ontario, Grey Bruce and northern parts of Michigan have been identified as being particularly high for toxins. With grain moving around the province post-harvest, you likely will not know (geographically)

where your grain has come from. This is why it is extremely important to test for mycotoxins, and ensure that when you do, it is a good, composite sample from the entire load or lot received.

On average, corn has tested around 1 ppm for DON, but there have been samples reaching as high as 8.5 ppm. Feeding this corn becomes problematic on its own as a feedstuff but even more so if that same high DON level corn is used for ethanol production. In ethanol production toxins, post-fermentation, become concentrated in the Dried Distillers Grains (DDGS). Typically if corn going into the ethanol plant has 2 ppm DON, the DDGS coming out will have approximately 6 ppm. We have seen samples come back from the lab with DON levels as high as 9.6 ppm in DDGS samples.

Soft wheat appears to be the cleanest grain this year, essentially having very little toxins in samples submitted. There were only low levels of DON on average (<0.2 ppm) in soft wheat, however one sample tested 7 ppm for Aflatoxin B1 and 4.5 ppm of DON. This substantiates the fact that you should know (via testing) what you are feeding. Since toxins tend to concentrate on the outer portion of the grain, it is not surprising that shorts, on average, are roughly 3 times higher in toxin levels compared to wheat. Some samples of wheat shorts have attained levels of 7 ppm of DON.

The United States Department of Agriculture, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food all recommend that DON not exceed 1 ppm in the complete feed, either by giving recommendations for maximum levels of DON in feed or maximum DON levels in a particular commodity (restricting the inclusion rate). Ultimately, all the recommendations come back to a maximum 1 ppm of DON for swine feeds. This may be extremely difficult for producers to abide by this year, especially if they grow their own commodities for use and they have high DON with no other grains to dilute their high toxin grain with. If you are in this predicament we encourage you to pay close attention to the health and performance of your operation and look out for symptoms of mycotoxicosis. The main symptoms to watch for when feeding grains high in DON are; reduced feed intake and gain, with feed refusal in the extreme case; poor reproductive performance; and impaired immune function.

If you are observing symptoms associated with DON or potentially other mycotoxins, please contact your Grand Valley Fortifiers Swine Specialist to learn how they can assist you in overcoming the negative effects from feeding mycotoxin contaminated feed. n

With the growing attention to antibiotic resistant bacteria, there is an increased need to develop strategies to remove and replace

antibiotics from animal production. This comes as a result of increasing bodies of research demonstrating resistance genes in pathogenic bacteria for several antibiotics used in both human health and food producing animals. These include tetracycline resistant Escherichia coli (E.coli) and virginiamycin resistant Clostridia species, both of which are classified as high and medium importance in terms of their significance to human medicine. It is the antibiotics classified with very high and high importance that are at risk of being banned for use in companion and food producing animals, while those with medium importance will soon be relegated to use only for the prevention and treatment of disease in livestock production. Currently, these antibiotics are approved for the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections as well as for the promotion of growth and feed efficiency in food producing animals. Antibiotics accomplish this by 1) reducing the number of bacteria in the intestinal tract; 2) inhibiting pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella and E. coli; 3) reducing immune system stimulation and 4) modifying intestinal physiology, thereby improving nutrient absorption.

Antibiotics also impact growth by sparing nutrients which otherwise would be needed to mount an immune response, allowing them to be used for growth instead. In a healthy animal, there is a natural balance between the pathogenic and beneficial bacteria in the gut required for proper immunity. Both genetic and environmental factors can cause an imbalance in this system, leading to a cascade of events resulting in overstimulation of the immune response. By taking advantage of the communication between the gut microbiota and the immune system, we can create a positive physiological response using alternative feed ingredients instead of antibiotics. Grand Valley Fortifiers is continuously exploring ingredients to modulate the balance between beneficial and pathogenic bacteria. There are several key groups of antibiotic alternatives

MOVING TOWARDS ANTIBIOTIC REPLACEMENTS by: NATALIE LITVAKM.Sc., Monogastric Nutritionist, Grand Valley Fortifiers

Above – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff show two plates growing bacteria in the presence of discs containing various antibiotics. The isolate on the left plate is susceptible to the antibiotics on the discs and is therefore unable to grow around the discs. The one on the right has a drug resistant germ or CRE (carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae) that is resistant to all of the antibiotics tested and is able to grow near the disks

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Swine Grist

W ith all the enteric diseases that we now experience on the farm, most producers

now clean, wash and disinfect their weaner rooms after each turn. This process requires a great deal of effort but it has proven to be extremely effective at keeping disease from travelling and piglets from getting sick.

ARE YOUR WEANED PIGLETS SCOURING?by: SCOTT WALKER Grand Valley Fortifiers, Swine Sales Manager

that play an important role in improving the gut microbiota, thereby resulting in improved growth and feed efficiency. These include 1) probiotics; 2) prebiotics; 3) organic acids and 4) herbal extracts.

Probiotics are live microorganisms that colonize the gut and thereby improve the balance of the intestinal microflora. These include live yeast and live bacteria. Probiotics inhibit pathogens by competing for attachment sites on the gut epithelium. They have been shown to produce bacteriocins, which specifically target and destroy invading pathogens. Bacteriocins have diverse modes of action, compared to the very specific targets on which antibiotics exert their effect thereby significantly reducing the risk of pathogenic bacteria developing resistance.

Prebiotics, on the other hand, are non-digestible functional foods that pass through the small intestine and are used as an energy source by beneficial bacteria in the hindgut of the animal. These include inulin, oligosaccharides, as well as yeast extracts and yeast cell wall. A combination of pro- and prebiotics (also known as a synbiotic) can work synergistically to improve overall gut health.

Organic acids also have demonstrated antimicrobial effects. When added to feed, they have been shown to reduce E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria numbers in the intestinal tract. Additionally, organic acids reduce digesta pH, increase pancreatic secretions and promote proliferation of gut lining. The reduction of pH is particularly important for young newly weaned animals due to their inability to secrete sufficient quantities of hydrochloric acid, necessary for enzyme activation and therefore efficient digestion. It has also been demonstrated that the acidic condition favours the growth of lactobacilli. These beneficial bacteria have been shown to promote gut health by enhancing intestinal integrity and increasing the metabolic activity of intestinal cells.

Lastly, essential oils and herbal extracts can have a significant effect on gut microflora. They function via several different modes of action. Herbal extracts are able to bind to bacterial cell membrane proteins, changing the permeability characteristics of the membrane and result in leakage in the pathogen cell wall. They also inhibit the energy metabolism of pathogens, such as coliform bacteria, Listeria monocytogenes, and Steptococci. Both of these functions result in the death of pathogenic bacteria. Herbal extracts have also been shown to reduce gastric pH and improve the integrity of the small intestine, improving digestive and absorptive capacity. Since the mode of action of the herbal extracts is non-specific to the characteristics of the pathogen, the likelihood of developing any resistance is extremely low.

Research has shown that all of these products, used either alone or in combination, can improve growth performance and feed efficiency, and produce performance results similar to those fed prophylactic antibiotics. At Grand Valley Fortifiers, we have been taking advantage of these alternative feed additives for over a decade and continue to explore these technologies to improve our product lines. This knowledge was put into practice when developing the Natures Blend® line of feeds and premixes, which have been used successfully in raising over 1.5 million hogs without the use of antibiotics from birth to market. n

However, over the course of visiting many nurseries, I have learned that there may be a potential risk factor many producers are not address-ing. This risk factor is the waterlines that run within the nurseries. How many producers are disinfecting their water lines between batches? With the low water usage typical in a nursery combined with high temperatures close to the ceiling where our waterlines are suspended, I have seen many farms with bio-film issues within the lines.

Bio-film can be in the form of yeast or coliform bloom. A number of water acidifiers and water soluble antibiotics contain lactose-based ingredients that can cause bio-films to build up within water lines.

The best way to determine if you have a bio-film issue is to use a clear container and collect water directly from the nipple within the nursery. Quite often you will find the water clean with very little particles in suspension. However, don’t be fooled as you may still have a problem. The second test is to remove a couple nipples under full pressure and collect the water. You might be amazed at what you find! When collecting water from behind the nipple, I have observed water that has a colour similar to apple cider, a black substrate or even water that looks like dead skin is suspended within it.

I have been involved with servicing a number of farms where bio-film was an issue, which resulted in newly weaned pigs scouring acutely or having a high incidence of strep suis. If we have bio-film growing within our waterlines, pigs may also restrict their water intake due to foul taste or water restriction.

There are a number of products available to disinfect your waterlines. Some of these products need to be injected in your empty weaner room waterlines and left for a minimum of 24–48 hours. When disinfecting water lines, you may need to vent the line depending on the product used. Once producers have disinfected their waterlines, we have often lowered and even eliminated scour challenges and witnessed improved nursery performance.

Particle size may be another factor to consider when combating a nursery scour challenge. As producers strive to improve feed conversion, nursery feeds may be ground too fine. Finely ground feed results in an increased rate of passage through the digestive tract resulting in some undigested nutrients proceeding to the large intestine where bacterial growth explodes resulting in diarrhea. With the increased rate of passage there is reduced acidification of the feed in the stomach resulting in less bacteria sanitation of the digesta, reduced pepsin secretion and protein digestion. The result is more nutrients for bacteria in the hind gut.

Pigs that scour shortly after weaning will likely have suffered damage to the villi in the gut, the sites responsible for nutrient absorption and rapid growth. Pigs with poor growth after weaning will continue to grow more slowly throughout their lifetime.

If you are struggling with scours and have done all of the above with limited success, make sure to submit pigs or swabs from loose weaners to your closest diagnostic lab. Getting proper diagnostics as well as drug sensitivities is a critical component to resolving your scour issues.

Please contact your GVF Swine Specialist or your veterinarian if your operation is struggling with persistent post-wean scour issues. n

Pictured above – After disinfecting your water line

2014 Holiday Delivery ScheduleOrder Desk & Farmers Farmacy Hours:

Christmas Eve - Wed, Dec 24 8 AM – 2 PM Christmas Day - Thurs, Dec 25 CLOSED Boxing Day - Fri, Dec 26 CLOSED New Year’s Day - Thurs, Jan 1 CLOSED We would like to wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season!

Stay connected to find out about upcoming events, new products & exciting promotions.

/grandvalleyfortifiers @grandvalley /gvftv

Thought for the Day The Foretelling and Fulfilling of the SaviourTherefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. – Isaiah 7:14

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS. – Matthew 1:18–25

From all of us at Grand Valley Fortifiers we wish you and your family a blessed Christmas.

Thank you to everyone who participated in The Great Outdoors Giveaway and congratulations to Ken Huizingafor winning the grand prize Arctic Cat 550 Camo.

COMMODITY OUTLOOKby: STEVE McGUFFIN

A lexa Main joined Direct Source Commodities mid-November. She is a University of Guelph

graduate having completed her undergrad and Master’s degrees there. Many of you have been speaking with Mackenzie Faus during this transition and she will be moving on pursuing a career in marketing. We wish her well.

With the pipeline for soybeans having run pretty much empty going into the new crop harvest, processors had reduced crush so when fall rains delayed harvest there was a huge demand for meal. With the new bean supply, processors have been running at full crush to catch up to export and domestic demand. Offers are high for November/December if you can get one with about a $120 discount going into January. For those that can feed roasted soys there’s some savings to be had as soybean prices haven’t increased to the same extent as meal.

This year’s corn crop has an increased level of vomitoxin which is resulting in higher levels in DDGS.

If you are interested in receiving DSC’s commodity price indication updates, please contact stevemcguffin@grandvalley.com or call 1-877-743-4412. n

NEW HIRE: RAY STORTZ

We are excited to announce that Ray Stortz has joined the Grand Valley Fortifiers

Swine Specialist team. Ray was raised on a Cow – Calf Beef Farm near Shedden, Ontario and has worked with livestock for most of his life. Ray has a keen interest in animal husbandry,

and still has involvement on the family farm when needed. Ray graduated with his Bachelor of Science at the University of Western Ontario and recently received his Masters of Science in Animal Behaviour & Welfare from the University of Guelph. Ray currently lives in Shedden and will be working with Scott Walker and other members of our Swine Specialist team to service pork producers in Southwestern Ontario. We are very pleased to have Ray part of our team. n

“PORCINE PLASMA PRODUCTS NOT SOURCE OF PEDv INFECTION” by: BRUCE SCHUMANN

Read this interesting article written in response to the recent OIE (a World Organization for Animal Health) statement above by signing up for new email services before Dec 17th. We will email the entire article on Dec 19th to all those who have subscribed to swine specific information. Sign up today by visiting www.grandvalley.com/email