Magapor has hosted its third technical congress on pig reproduction in Zaragoza, Spain, for AI centre managers and their advisers. Feeding of AI boars was one of the topics on the agenda, with Alberto Morillo of Spanish company Tests and Trials describing positive effects from the inclusion of carnitine, selenium and fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6 in the boar’s diet. Dr Joaquín Gadea, professor at the University of Murcia in Spain, reported on new methods for semen analysis which are offering a greater capacity to predict fertility. A speech by Dr Carlos Buxadé, professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, tried to transmit an optimistic vision of the current costs crisis in pig production and argued it will be the more efficient and effective producers with a solid financial structure that will have the opportunity to survive economically.
With the 2008 International Pig Veterinary Society Congress coming to Durban in June, latest data for South Africa show its total on-farm inventory at 1.65 million pigs and 103 000 sows. About 157 000 tons of pork were produced nationally in 2007, while approximately 177 000 tons of pork were consumed compared with a national consumption of 855 000 tons of poultrymeat and 670 000 tons of beef/veal.
Kemin has announced a feed energy theme for the meeting it will hold at Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, USA, on Wednesday 4th June, the day before the opening of the World Pork Expo at the same venue. The meeting will discuss strategies including the use of net energy formulation, extracting more energy with enzymes and the availability of energy and by-product alternatives.
Thon Hotel in Brussels city centre will be the location for a 24th July workshop on combating PRRS in Europe. This workshop organised by the UK’s Roslin Institute is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council together with Epizone and Genesis Faraday Partnership.
English branch of European Pig Producers has "How to live with the world's most sophisticated retailers" as its theme for the EPP Congress it hosts in Norwich, UK, 5th-8th June 2008.
DLG of Germany reports that the 2008 Agrofarm exhibition in Moscow drew some 7700 visitors from large farms located throughout Russia. This was a 13% increase in the number of visitors for the second edition of the annual show on professional animal husbandry sector, organised jointly by APK VVC (Moscow) and DLG-Agriservice. The exhibition attracted 170 exhibitors from 17 countries who used 7500 square metres of display space at the VVC All-Russian Exhibition Centre. Next year’s AgroFarm will be held at the same showground on 20th-22nd May 2009.
