News and Media

Applications for APRIL Industry Placement Program Award NOW OPEN

APRIL is pleased to announce a call for applications for its Industry Placement Program (IPP) Award. 

As part of its Education and Training program, APRIL is continuing to assist with human capacity building in the Australian pork industry through the IPP Award scheme. A successful business applicant will receive $90,000 over the first 2 years of a 3-year agreement with APRIL to help cover salary and other costs associated with training an Awardee for the 3 years. The overall aims of the IPP scheme are:

  1. To retain graduates trained by APRIL, APL, and (or) other relevant organisations, at the Honours and (or) postgraduate level, and attract others, by sponsoring their placement in a commercial pork production organisation or an affiliated business strongly aligned to pork production, in a structured and enhanced development program.  
  2.  To attract graduates into the industry with a career interest in pork production while continuing their development and understanding of how research and development, education and training, technology, and extension/adoption can enhance industry competitiveness and success.

This award is only available to APRIL Participants with the rights and benefits applying according to an organisation’s tier of participation.

Further information on the Award and the IPP application form can be found below.

The Australian Pork Industry Education and Training Committee will assess all applications. APRIL will determine the number of, and the amount of, any grant awarded. Funding Rules stipulate that no overhead (indirect cost recovery) can be charged. Awards are conducted under the Terms and Conditions of the APRIL Scholarship Agreement, that can be viewed here:

IPP Award Guidelines

Can we measure a pig’s emotional state?

APRIL supported project (5A – 113)

Title: Brain Measures of Positive Welfare in Pigs

Lead Researcher: Professor Alan Tilbrook (University of Queensland)

Although we may generally know if a pig is feeling happy, stressed or bored through behavioural indicators, it can be challenging to measure these responses accurately when conducting research on emotional states. In this pilot study, researchers wanted to work out if the emotional state of a pig, both long term and short term positive and negative experiences, could be measured using different biological markers (Biomarkers). 

What were the Biomarkers tested? 

  •   Cortisol, a hormone commonly released in mammalian stress response. 
  •   The NEAT1 gene, which may play a role in how the brain responds to a negative stress or positive stimulation. 
  •   Mid Infrared Spectroscopy (MIR) to measure chemical changes in the brain. 

Research Question: Can any of these biomarkers (cortisol, NEAT1 or MIR) identify whether pigs experience positive, negative or neutral emotional states and therefore can the biomarkers be used to assess the quality of life in pigs? 

What did they do: 

The pigs were split into one of three treatment groups for over four weeks: 

  1. Neutral Group: Standard on farm conditions. 
  2. Positive Group: Lots of positive handling and high-quality enrichment materials (greater than standard conditions). 
  3. Negative Group: Regularly moved and mixed with unfamillar pigs to trigger a mild stress response. 

At the end of four weeks, 36 pigs from each group were selected for futher assessment. Half of the selected group were briefly restrained with a snout snare to stimulate a short term stress, while the other half were left undisturbed. Saliva, blood plasma and brain tissue of subjects were collected to look for biological differences of both the long term and short term emotional conditions. 

Snapshot of Key Findings: 

For pigs that experienced a short-term stress event (snout snare restraint), the level of NEAT1 gene in the saliva was lower, and the level of cortisol was higher. However, the presence of this NEAT1 gene did not differ much between pigs housed in either neutral, positive or disruptive environmental conditions. 

In fact, non of the bio-markers: cortisol, NEAT1 or MIR could succesfully detect long term emotional states between treatment groups in this pilot study. 

Notably, pigs in the disruptive/negative environment grew slower than pigs in positive or neutral environments. 

Relevance to Industry: 

While more research is needed in this area, the outcomes suggest the NEAT1 gene could become a useful, non-invasive biomarker for measuring acute stress in pigs through saliva sampling. With ongoing research into this area, it is hoped industry will one day gain a clearer, more objective measure of detecting emotional states of pigs for future.

The APRIL Enterprise Award to be announced on 20th November!

The APRIL Enterprise Award will be granted to an individual (or individuals) working in the pork industry that can demonstrate innovation and excellence in one or more of the following themes:

  • Innovations resulting in new products, methodologies and/or services. 
  • Potential for accelerated adoption of an innovation to improve performance and efficiency. 
  • Potential for commercialisation opportunities through APRIL. 

The award winner (or winners) will be selected by an industry-based panel and will be announced at the APRIL Stakeholders’ Forum. The Award winner(s) will be eligible to be invited to attend and eligible to receive a cash prize (as per the Terms & Conditions)

Applications closed on 24 October 2025.

Winner to be announced at the APRIL Stakeholders Forum on 20th November 2025

Turning Waste into Feed: The Next Step for Sustainable Pig Production?


APRIL supported project (6A-105)

Title: Food Waste to Pig Feed – Safe and Biosecure

Lead Researcher: Dr Valeria Torok (South Australian Research and Development Institute).

Due to the risk of introducing emergency animal diseases, the feeding of any feed waste product to pigs is usually prohibited in Australia. But what if the food could be processed to make it completely safe? This was the challenge set by the End Food Waste CRC-P, a cooperative research program aiming to tackle Australia’s rising landfill problem by finding sustainable ways to repurpose biological feed waste.

Research Aim: To identify food safety, biosecurity risks, and economic feasibility of converting mixed human food waste into safe pig feed.

A regional Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) was conducted across five Australian pig producing areas in Australia. The TEA assessed both wet and dry feeding systems to evaluate the practical and economic viability of converting food waste into a bio-secure ingredient compared with standard grain-based diet.

Alongside the TEA, a pilot study was undertaken with weaner pigs fed either a 100% standard commercial feed, or an 80% standard commercial feed plus 20% bio-secure waste. Food waste was macerated, heated to 100°C, dewatered, dried and milled (<3mm) before being incorporated into the diet.

Figure 1. Process of treating mixed food waste into a dry feed ingredient. The material was initially macerated/shredded and then heat treated, dewatered, dried and milled into a feed ingredient.

Snapshot of key findings:

  • The TEA identified approximately 373,000 tonnes per year of untapped food waste from commercial and industrial sources across five major pig producing regions in Australia. 

  • Wet feed production was found to be feasible in all areas investigated, with dry feed ingredient production being feasible only on the eastern seaboard.

  • The four-week weaner trial found no significant differences in performance or faecal amino acid digestibility of weaner pigs fed a 20% mixed food waste additive compared to those fed only a commercial weaner diet.

Australia currently lacks the legislative framework to support uptake by both the food and livestock industries. Safe implementation will therefore require the development of policy and legislative frameworks.

 
This work has been supported by the End Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre whose activities are funded by the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centre Program.

Rethinking the Grind: Can Coarser Feed Support Better Fetal Development?

APRIL supported project (5A-111)

Title: Escaping the Daily Grind: Coarser Ground Diets for Improved Fetal Growth

Lead Researcher: Dr Kate Plush (SunPork Group)

When it comes to feeding sows in gestation, we often focus on nutrient levels, energy content, and feed efficiency. But new insights suggest something as simple as the grind size of feed could have a surprising impact on piglet development before birth.  

Coarser feed particles, unlike finer ones, tend to pass through the small intestine relatively undigested, reaching the hindgut intact. Once there, the feed particles are a fermentable substrate for beneficial gut microbes. This process, call hindgut fermentation, produces short-chain-fatty-acids (SCFAs) like butyrate, which has been linked to improved fetal growth in previous rat studies. 

Research Question: Could feeding sows a coarser ground diet throughout gestation (standard gestational diet with 40% feed particles >1mm) affect growth and development of piglets in utero? 

In this series of projects, sows were fed either a coarsely ground diet (40% feed particles greater than 1mm) or Control diet (30% feed particles greater than 1mm). Each sow was fed 2.1kg per day via electronic sow feeder, or 2.4kg per day for thinner sows (P2 backfat less than 16mm).

 

Figure 1. Gestating sows fed either a coarsely ground diet (40% particles > 1mm) on the left or Control diet (30% particles > 1mm) on the right-hand side.

Snapshot of key findings:

  • Coarser particle diets increased short chain fatty acid production in the feaces and serum of gestating sows, with a tendency for increased serum butyrate. 
  • Sows fed the coarser diet had fewer low birthweight piglets.
  • Supplementing coarser diets with an exogenous enzyme led to increased litter sizes, supporting greater sow productivity. 
Further work is required to determine the exact mechanism(s) by which a coarser diet fed to gestating sows reduced the impact of low birthweight piglets. Additionally, there may be other benefits to feeding larger grain particles to sows not quantified in this project. 
 
 

 See Project Summary 

 See Full Report