The MOR product range has been carefully crafted to be as succulent, juicy, and delicious as everyone’s favourite pork sausages, while also introducing exciting new flavours that bring something different to the dinner table, the manufacturer said. There are four recipes in the range – Mediterranean Chicken and Moroccan Spiced Pork, Super Green Veg & Lentil Pork Sausages, Beetroot & Bramley Apple Pork Sausages and Sundried Tomato & Basil Chicken Chipolatas.

Each of the four MOR recipes blend high-quality British meat with nutritious vegetables, herbs, and spices, that are lower fat than standard pork sausages and can be used in recipes including tagines and pastas.

Ispini Charcuterie, based on a family farm at Aughnacloy in rural county Tyrone, has developed a Black Strap Stout and Rum Lomo. The product is based on pork loin from pigs raised on the family farm by Jonny Cuddy, the entrepreneur behind the charcuterie business, among the first in Northern Ireland.

The lomo is also cured using juniper and pepper for three weeks and then hung and air dried for a minimum of two months.

Black Strap molasses are regarded as being rich in nutrients and minerals including calcium and manganese. The stout is sourced from a Tyrone craft brewery.

“Black strap molasses adds a robust bitter–sweet taste with undertones coming through of the stout and a little bit of saltiness on the tongue makes this an unique piece of Irish charcuterie,” said Cuddy.

The product retails at £5 for a 60g packet of sliced lomo. He also produces fennel salami and chorizo for delis and chefs across Northern Ireland.

Ispini Charcuterie, the small food business Cuddy established last August, is focused on local ingredients including spent grain from Pokertree craft brewery in Carrickmore, county Tyrone for curing pork. Ispini takes its name from the Irish for sausages.

He started developing charcuterie to “increase the return from our pigs,” he said. “I saw an opportunity to revive the tradition of curing meat that had declined in Northern Ireland. I also recognised that I needed niche products that would be capable of commanding a premium.”

Cuddy has been farming with father Raymond and brother Robert since leaving university and now looks after 300 sows on the family farm near the border with the Republic of Ireland.

He’s also been encouraged and assisted by leading chef Sean Owens, also the managing director of Aughnacloy–based Montgomery Food Consulting. Together they began sampling and developing recipes for salami and chorizo sausages in Montgomery’s state–of–the–art kitchen facilities in the Tyrone town.

They turned to the School of Artisan Foods at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire to extend their charcuterie knowledge and skills.

 “Northern Ireland has everything we need for great charcuterie, especially an abundance of superb and safe meat,” he said. “Our meat is produced using the highest animal welfare standards to ensure outstanding flavours and premium quality.”

The pork roll is made from British pork and sausage meat with a barbecue sauce and onions in puff pastry, the company said. Both products will be priced at £1.80

“Research with consumers confirmed these flavours have a high level of appeal with consumers,” said brand manager Kate Brown.

Made for use in domestic and agricultural buildings, the product is designed to protect the fabric of such structures, such as electrical cabling and insulation materials, as well as their contents, such as machinery, and “anything else rodents might damage by biting or chewing”.

“Agricultural buildings and farm machinery provide ideal habitats for rats and mice,” said Lodi UK’s managing director, Roger Simpson. “In addition to the direct damage they cause by consuming or spoiling stored crops and feedstuffs, rodents also inflict a huge amount of damage to farm machinery and greatly increase the risk of fire because of damage to electrical cables and the risk of short-circuits.”

Called Suvaxyn Circo+MH RTU, the vaccine provides active immunisation against the economically important diseases caused by PCV2 and enzootic pneumonia.

“Respiratory disease from M. hyo, and the effects of PCV2, can be devastating to pig herds through reduced growth rates, poor feed efficiency, increased mortality and extended time to market,” said Zoetis UK pig and poultry business unit director, Ben Lacey (pictured above). “That is why we let science lead the way in developing an effective vaccine in one convenient bottle that is fit for the 21st Century.

“This is a true bivalent vaccine built from the ground up and not just two existing products mixed together. Aspects of human vaccine technology have also been applied to the manufacturing process.”

The company also reported that clinical trials have shown that Suvaxyn Circo+MH RTU reduces faecal shedding caused by PCV2 infection, as well as reducing the viral load in blood and lymphoid tissues.

“It also reduces lung lesions caused by M. hyo infection,” said Zoetis. ”This protection is achieved from a single 2ml dose that can be given from three weeks of age. The onset of immunity to both PCV2 and M. hyo is fully effective three weeks after vaccination.

“Additional benefits of using one-shot vaccination include reducing stress for the pigs and decreasing labour time required for vaccination, as only a single injection is required.”

“Nobody likes to end up with part-used bottles of any vaccine that then have to be discarded,” said the company’s swine brand manager, Callum Blair, adding that the introduction of 10-dose and 100-dose packs for the PRRS vaccine will provide choice for different sized units and help reduce wasted doses.

The new packs, which are available now, complement the company’s existing 50ml (50-dose) packs.

Called MYCOMAN, the app is claimed to offer complete mycotoxin hazard assessment, providing all the information required for a correct product application based on the level of mycotoxin contamination in a selected feed sample. It’s also claimed that the app does more than merely identify the level of mycotoxin contamination present in feeds.

“Although it is important to know what the real level of mycotoxin contamination is at any given moment, this is not the only requirement for producers,” said Nutriad Mycotoxin Management’s Radka Borutova. “For complete and comprehensive mycotoxin management, the results of mycotoxin analyses also need to be translated into recommendations on proper dosage of mycotoxin deactivators.”

While agreeing that linking the mycotoxin challenge to instant recommendations on usage and dosage of mycotoxin deactivators is a challenging assignment, Nutriad said its new app is “up for the task”.

“MYCOMAN will complement information obtained after mycotoxin analyses and will instantly help feed and animal producers to manage mycotoxins efficiently and effectively,” said Nutriad CEO, Erik Visser.

“We have consistently invested in product development, research, customer relations and in staffing our Mycotoxin Management product group, aiming to be the best practical expert in the field of mycotoxins. The new app is another step towards realising our ambition.”

The app is available online for iOS-Apple and Android-Google-Microsoft.

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Called “Think BioRisk”, the app is geared to be used by anyone who steps onto a pig unit, according to AHDB Pork, with its interactive video scenarios being used to demonstrate best practice pig production and common mistakes.

“All units should be working towards, or maintaining, a high herd health status because poor disease management costs money and could prove disastrous for the British pig industry in the case of a disease outbreak,” said AHDB Pork’s veterinary manager, Martin Smith.

“However, when busy, we understand that it’s easy for everyone to become wrapped up in day-to-day activities and, as other priorities take hold, key risks with regard to herd health are often overlooked.

“By helping people understand the weak spots, however, we hope that we can promote better long-term protection of our pig health and the industry.”

App users are invited to “click the mouse” whenever they see an example of a health risk or bad biosecurity, a bit like taking the hazard perception part of a driving test. On completion, feedback is provided on both good and bad practice portrayed in the videos.

“Some examples of the training modules include: visitors, vehicles, movements of people and livestock, pest control, medicine management and deadstock collection,” said Mr Smith (pictured above).

“Everyone wants healthy high performing livestock and, regardless of your farm set-up, there will be small changes that can be made to significantly reduce the risk of introducing or spreading pig diseases.”

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Called Neopigg Go! it is reported to have shown daily weight gain and feed efficiency improvements in recently completed UK commercial trials.

“Producers quote improvements in weaning weights of 300g per piglet and an improvement of 2kg per piglet four weeks post-weaning in piglets fed Neopigg Go! compared with piglets fed a conventional prestarter feed,” said Cargill pig nutritionist, Maisie Lord, commenting on the trial results.

“The product was fed from four days old up to weaning and recorded high intakes with no growth or appetite check at weaning.”

She also said that the product’s 1.8 mm pellet size encouraged intake and, along with successfully developing the gut, was found by producers to contribute to a smooth transition at weaning without a dip in performance.

The annual impact in Europe is estimated at £1.1 billion – with the finisher herd bearing 54% of that cost and the breeding herd the remaining 46%. The costs in individual countries range from £75 to £150/sow/year.

A recent survey of UK vets estimated the prevalence of PRRS here at 52% of sows and 47% of piglets, and the ongoing cost of chronic PRRS infection in a herd here is put at about £107/sow/year.

Boehringer Ingelheim has 20 years of experience in the US and some European countries with a PRRS vaccine based on a North American (genotype 2) strain, but has now introduced two new vaccines aimed at protecting against the effects of European (genotype 1) strains. The first is Ingelvac PRRSFLEX EU, which is the only PRRS vaccine licensed specifically for piglets available to UK producers.

For active immunisation of clinically healthy pigs from farms affected with PRRS, a 1ml intramuscular dose can be given to piglets from 17 days of age. The onset of immunity is three weeks, and the duration of immunity is 26 weeks.

An experimental challenge of seronegative animals demonstrated that vaccination reduced lung lesions, the virus load in the blood and lung tissues, and the negative effects of infection on daily weight gain. A significant reduction of the respiratory clinical signs has also been demonstrated at the onset of immunity.

Sow vaccine
ReproCyc PRRS EU, meanwhile, is for breeding gilts and sows in herds affected with European strains of PRRS, and can be administered at all stages of the reproductive cycle as part of a mass-vaccination programme. Each dose, which unlike the piglet vaccine includes an adjuvant, is 2ml given intramuscularly. The onset of immunity is five weeks and the duration of immunity is 17 weeks – so the treatment is recommended to be repeated every three months as a mass vaccination.

Treatment of breeding females reduces PRRS-induced reproductive disorders such as premature farrowing, weak-born piglets and neonatal mortality. Vaccinated gilts and sows also show decreased transplacental PRRS virus transmission from infected females to piglets and a reduction in the negative effects of PRRS virus infection on their piglets during suckling.

Pre-launch registration trials of ReproCyc PRRS EU have shown mortality 3.2% lower in piglets born to vaccinated sows and average weaning weights 610g higher than piglets from non-vaccinated sows.

“We’re very confident that the simultaneous launch of these two new vaccines will significantly benefit UK pig producers,” Boehringer Ingelheim’s UK swine business manager, Dr David Strachan, said. “The company has worked hard to develop an effective solution for sustainable whole-herd PRRS control, and we’re convinced that these two new vaccines are a great combination.”

PRRS control
Along with the new vaccines, Boehringer Ingelheim has introduced a systematic approach to PRRS control that’s based on the three pillars of: preventing infection by using good biosecurity to stop the introduction of new virus; maximising immunity throughout the whole herd; and minimising exposure of pigs to PRRS by reducing circulation of the farm’s resident virus through a tailored control programme.

The company’s PRRS 5-Step Process is a systematic platform that allows vets and producers to co-ordinate and optimise the use of multiple management tools to make PRRS control simpler and more effective:

Step 1 is to identify desired goals. These may vary significantly from unit to unit, but will ultimately be focused on either controlling PRRS or even eliminating it (this has been done in herds affected by genotype 2 strains, and Boehringer Ingelheim is confident similar results can be achieved against genotype 1).

Step 2 then involves determining current PRRS status, which is done by evaluating PRRSv shedding and PRRSv exposure. Classification of herds based on PRRS status helps to identify objectives for controlling and/or eliminating the virus.

Step 3 is aimed at understanding any constraints that exist, as designing a vaccination and control programme requires objective assessment of the capabilities and limitations of the production system. Typical constraints could be a shortage of labour, the presence of other diseases or biosecurity issues on the unit.

Step 4 sees the producer and vet working together to develop solution options.

Step 5 is the implementation and monitoring of the preferred solution. Ongoing monitoring of production parameters, clinical signs and diagnostic information will ultimately reveal the success of the programme.