The Swine Intensive Studies Lab was created in response to several key drivers and is currently focused on sow longevity issues and objective assessments of pain. However, current capabilities and expertise can be adapted to investigate other areas of relevance to the swine industry including studies on growing pigs and boars. Key drivers of current activity:
- Survey work of cull sows demonstrates that foot lesions are more frequent than gross lesions in any other organ system
- Poor understanding of the correlation of lesions and lameness
- Lameness clearly impacts performance
- General public becoming more insistent that pain mitigation be used in food animals
- No drugs for pain treatment approved in food animals
- FDA Guidance document 123 illustrates need for objective assessments of pain to approve new treatments
- As input costs go higher, sows must remain in the herd for more parities to be profitable
Please use the tabs on the left hand side of this page to further explore what is happening in the lab.