Agriculture Business Week

Various strategies have been identified by experts from the academe and the feed industry to reduce or prevent the adverse effects of mycotoxins on animal health and production. So far the most practical method is the inclusion of mvcotoxin adsorbents in feed. When an effective mycotoxin adsorbent is added to .feed, it adsorbs mycotoxins in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and they are safely excreted in feces, thereby preventing absorption and transport to target organs. The net effect is a reduction in the dose of absorbable toxin to a concentration that does not adversely affect animal performance.

Although mineral binders are relatively low priced in the market, they offer very limited protection against mycotoxins for several reasons:
• Some clay binders are processed, while others are crude inorganic preparations (e.g. zeolites and bentonites). The efficacy of such products is variable or inconsistent.
• Mineral mycotoxin binders, such as hydrated sodium aluminosilicates (HSCAS), are capable of binding only one specific mycotoxin (most commonly aflatoxin). Such products are not, therefore, effective against mycotoxins of varying molecular weight and polarity. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that clay binders are not effective against T-2 toxin, ochratoxins, DON, cyclopiazonic acid, zearalenone, diacetoxyyscirpenol, fumonisins and ergotamine.
• Clay binders offer low specificity and so must be used at a high level of inclusion (5 kg/metric ton of feed) to be effective.

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Posted on November 30th, 2008 under Livestock, Special Report. Tags: Disease, Mycotoxin. Comments: None

The abattoir of Alaminos City, known as Don Leopoldo Alcedo. Slaughterhouse, has been chosen as the country’s Best Meat Establishment for 2007 during the celebration of Meat Safety Consciousness Week.

The Alaminos City abattoir was the only city-owned slaughterhouse that was included in the elite group of “AA” abattoirs throughout the Philippines. The award was based on compliance to the rules and requirements set by a national inter-agency committee. Under the “AA” accredited local government unit slaughterhouse category, Alaminos City won over Imus, Cavite; Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon; and Moncada, Tarlac.

In a related development, Alaminos City was also recently bagged for the third time the Good ‘Manufacturing Practice accreditation from the National Meat Inspection Service in the Ilocos.

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Posted on November 30th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Meat. Comments: None

Slowly but surely, the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) is making significant breakthroughs in biotechnology research as it is now developing cloning by nuclear transfer techniques for the production and multiplication of super buffalos with extremely high milk and meat production performance.

In a book that is expected to be launched early next year by the national carabao center, PCC Executive Director Dr. Libertado C. Cruz emphasized that the 17 years of painstaking efforts have already been exerted to reach this stage of development. There were obstacles along the way but the hardship was compensated by the significant results obtained by the Center’s biotechnology research team.

It all started in 1990 during the time of Philippine Carabao Research and Development Center (PCRDC), the predecessor of PCC, when the development of reproductive biotechnology techniques as tool for genetic improvement was conceptualized.

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Posted on November 29th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao. Comments: None

Keeping the piggery clean and odorless has always been a challenge for hog raisers but this is more difficult for small-scale growers who raise pigs in the backyard They need to wash their pigpens more often to keep their neighbor from complaining.

Ironically, the fetid odor of piggeries is not a problem in the Municipality of Barotac Viejo in Iloilo for hog raisers there are practicing the no-wash-pigs technology, a very easy and economical way to manage piggeries which has been initially practiced in the Integrated Farm System (IFS), a demonstration farm that the municipal government established in Barangay Vista Alegre.

In this technology which is based on earlier models, the pigpen is made of bamboo and nipa and its concrete flooring is slightly inclined to force water and waste to flow down to the drainage. The floor is also stocked with 6-inch bedding which contains equal amounts of river or beach sand, fresh rice hulls, and carbonized rice hulls or rice hull charcoal.

To prevent the inhibition of mange and mites in the rice hulls, a handful of salt should be added per square meter, but this is optional. A better option is to regularly add dried kakawate (Gliricidia sepium), neem (Azadirachta indica), and ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) leaves for these help fasten the processing of the bedding mix into organic fertilizer when it is removed from the pen at the end of the cycle.

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Posted on November 28th, 2008 under Livestock, Technology. Tags: Pigs. Comments: None

Each one of the cows in the world passes out about 100 to 200 liters of methane gas each day, more by belching (though the mouth) rather than through the other end. Multiply these figures by 1.3 billion or more, which is the estimated number of cattle populating the earth. Then imagine the huge amount of gas vented into the atmosphere from these animals. Methane is touted the most potent of the global-warming gases. It has 21 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide, the more abundant of these gases.

Other ruminants, both wild and domestic, do the same to contribute to the accumulated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. No less than-the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide; more than all the planes, trains, and automobiles on the planet!

It isn’t just the gas they pass that makes livestock troublesome. The FAO also identified livestock as one of the top contributors to the world’s most serious environmental problems including water pollution, overgrazing, and loss of other animal species. These problems have been addressed for many years by environmentalists, but it’s only recently that gases from belching cattle have been recognized as a “major” cause of greenhouse effect, and thus global warming.

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Posted on November 28th, 2008 under Climate Change, Livestock. Tags: Cow, Global Warming. Comments: None

Many of the most valuable products in the feed industry are readily subject to autoxidation. Among them, fat sources, fish by-products, animal-rendered products, essential vitamins, and pigmented sources. Feed ingredients which are high in unsaturated, fatty acids are especially prone to autoxidation and subsequent rancidity.

By instinct, most animals will refuse to eat spoiled feed. But when -feed is limited, they may consume it, with digestive disturbances resulting in many cases. It has been demonstrated that cows consuming oxidized oils produce milk with an off-flavor. To curb the oxidation of feeds, antioxidants are routinely added to many livestock, poultry, and aqua feeds.

WHAT ARE ANTIOXIDANTS?
Antioxidants are compounds that prevent oxidative rancidity of polyunsaturated fats. It is important that rancidity of feeds be prevented because it may cause the destruction of vitamins A, D, and E, and several of the B-complex vitamins. The breakdown products of rancidity may also react with epsilon amino group of lysine and thereby decrease the protein and energy values of the ration. These effects can be prevented by inclusion in the ration of an effective antioxidant such as ethoxyquin (6-ethoxy-1, 2-dihyrdo-2, 4trimethylquinoline), BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene), or BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole). These products can be used singly or in combination with each other.

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Posted on November 28th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Antioxidant. Comments: None

In the past several years, the name of the game in the goat industry has been the production of purebred as well as upgraded animals for breeding. This period has seen the importation of the latest breeds such as the Boer and the long-time favorite which is the Nubian.

Interest in goat raising got its impetus from the improved technologies in taking care of the animals. Many years back, investors were reluctant to go into commercial goat production because after achieving a population of 80 animals, various problems would arise such as diseases and parasites, especially when the animals are on pasture.

Thanks to the efforts of government as well as private individuals, improved technologies in goat production have been developed. Raising the animals in confinement on elevated floor has been a major reason why goat farmers are now more successful in raising healthy and productive animals. One of the experts who has been doing a lot in propagating the improved techniques of goat production is Dr. Emilio Cruz of the Small Ruminants Division at the Central Luzon State University in Nueva Ecija.

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Posted on November 27th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Goat. Comments: 1

Daily observation should be done the same way every time. We must remember, I advise Pfizer animal health specialists, that we are looking at the pigs both as individuals and to see how they are acting as a group. Moreover, we are looking for things in the barn and environment that could be causing problems. Our observation to all the details needs to be systematic. So here you go! It’s your walk-through.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
Like with other jobs, you cannot be alert and fit unless you take care of yourself in your time off work, recommend Pfizer animal health specialists. This includes getting enough sleep the night before work, not abusing alcohol or drugs, keeping yourself in reasonable shape, and eating a good breakfast before work.

Taking care of pigs requires good observation skills. These skills will be lacking if you do not take care of yourself. Lack of sleep and hangovers are abuses to yourself, and these will also reduce your ability to properly care for pigs and. keep yourself safe. Self abuse can therefore lead to pig abuse. To identify the pig just beginning to exhibit signs of illness, you need to be awake, aware, and empathetic. So take care of yourself so you can give the pigs what they need.

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Posted on November 24th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Disease, Pigs/Hogs. Comments: None

Before, goat raising was only a farmers’ hobby. But now, it has become a livelihood in at least 33 towns and cities in Ilocos Region, thanks to the efforts of the Department of Agriculture-Regional Fied Unit I.

This regional development effort was needed after the Crop-Animal Systems  Research Network (CASREN); the pilot project of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) that worked with Pangasinan farmers in increasing the productivity of crop-live
11 systems by introducing technologies.

What’s noteworthy about this regional project is that goat production has been enhanced through strong public and private partnerships. It has attained its goals and, hence, other regions may derive some insights from it.

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Posted on November 22nd, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Goat. Comments: None