APRIL

Welcome to the first edition of APRIL News for 2022.

First, I would like to welcome a new staff member to APRIL and to the industry, Sophie Ward, who has joined us under an Early Career Scientist Fellowship working on aspects of the CRC-Project (CRC-P), Eliminating pig tail removal to improve welfare and industry sustainability. This is a 3-year project supported by the Australian Government with SunPork Pty Ltd. as the Lead Applicant, and other partners being APRIL, Australian Pork Limited, PIC Australasia Pty Ltd., Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd., RSPCA Australia, The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland, and the University of New England. 

An introduction to Sophie can be found later in the Newsletter.

I would like to say thank you to those participants who joined in and contributed to the consultation workshops just before Christmas last year, for the new APRIL Strategic Plan, 2022-2025. There was excellent feedback and comments and aspects of that were incorporated into the (draft) Strategic Plan, 2022-2025, that was presented to the Board for consideration at its meeting on 24 February, 2022. A revised version of the (draft) Strategic Plan will go back to the Board for its 28 April meeting.

A key component of the current Strategic Plan, 2019-2022, were the two Transformational Projects, Enhanced antimicrobial stewardship in the Australian pork industry through targeted reduction of in-feed medications without adverse health consequences, and Elimination of the need for tail-docking in Australasian pork production systems. I thought it worthwhile summarising, in the table below, the projects that have been secured/are currently under consideration, addressing these two priorities.

These projects are collaborative, often multi-disciplinary, and without the support of all of the partners and individuals involved in each project, could not be achieved. The projects exemplify how funds can be successfully leveraged to enable more research and development, and more education and training, to be done for the benefit of the Australasian pork industry.

Further details on each of the successful projects can be found here.

Project and Funding Body	Total project cash	APRIL cash	Leveraged cash	Total project value (including in-kind)	APRIL cash leverage (on total project value)
1	UofM Lead, Stress resilience and emotionality (3 yrs; ARC-Linkage project)	$688,641	$100,000	$588,651	$1,261,778	12.6 : 1
2	UQ Lead, Making antimicrobial use redundant (4 yrs; ARC-Linkage project)	$1,931,000	$359,000	$1,572,000	$3,835,000	10.7 : 1
3	SP Lead, Rearing pigs with intact tails (3 yrs, CRC-Project)	$4,531,116	$750,000	$3,781,116	$7,876,194	10.5 : 1
4	MU Lead, Feed additives and natural bacterial flora to combat antimicrobial resistant bacteria (3 yrs; APRIL)	$925,000	$600,000	$325,000	$1,375,000	2.3 : 1
5	MU-Lead, Robotics, genomics and stewardship to combat antimicrobial resistance in pigs (3 yrs; ARC-Linkage – UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR FUNDING)	$1,388,250	$279,999	$1,108,251	$2,214,009	7.9 : 1
	TOTAL (successful projects, 1-4)	$7,837,116	$1,809,000	$6,028,116	$14,347,972	Average = 7.9 : 1
	TOTAL (all projects, 1-5)	$9,225,366	$2,088,999	$7,136,367	$16,561,981	Average = 7.9 : 1

UofM: The University of Melbourne; UQ; The University of Queensland; MU: Murdoch University; SP: SunPork P/L.

This month’s Research Snapshot focuses on a project conducted through The University of Queensland that explored technologies and methodologies related to bio-upgrading of piggery biogas by growing algae, for potential value-add end uses. Please read on for further information.

In news from New Zealand and NZ Pork, Brent Kleiss has been named as the new Chief Executive of NZ Pork following David Baines’ recent resignation. Brent first joined NZ Pork in July 2021 as Policy Manager and officially moves into the role on May 2. APRIL thanks David for his valuable contributions during his tenure at NZ Pork, especially in regard to sharing of information concerning the current discussions about a new Draft Code of Welfare for Pigs. In this regard, NAWAC (National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee) has been working on a new draft code following a court ruling in 2020. A component of the NAWAC Pigs Subcommittee’s work plan was to undertake a Five Domains Assessment of animal welfare impacts and enhancements in relation to farrowing and mating system scenarios. NZ Pork sought an independent expert peer review of NAWAC’s report, and with APRIL’s support, commissioned a peer review by experts from the Animal Welfare Science Centre at The University of Melbourne and the Centre for Animal Science, The University of Queensland. More details on that report will be forthcoming.

Additionally, NZ Pork’s own modelling of cost impacts to the average New Zealand pig farmer shows that anticipated changes to farrowing crates and mating stalls without support measures impose a significant, if not completely unmanageable, barrier to a sustainable industry, with mooted changes to more space for growing pigs having an even greater impact. NZ Pork is committed to improving animal welfare where supported by science. Pending the outcomes of the upcoming consultation process on the pigs’ welfare code (dates yet to be confirmed), NZ Pork is poised to invest in research on farrowing and mating systems that will comply with any finalised changes to minimum standards.

Our Member Focus this edition is on Mr Robert Parkes, from Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd. 

A new section to the Newsletter is called Papers and Abstracts, which will highlight recently published articles supported by APRIL. In this Newsletter, we take a brief look at papers from the Australasian Pig Science Association (APSA) meeting, 2021, relating to the single-diet feeding concept.

Finally, we would welcome receiving APRIL-related information and upcoming events from our Members for possible inclusion in the Newsletter [subject to space (preferred length is 100-150 words) and content], as we see this as an important communication forum between Members also. Please note though that news of APRIL activities has priority, and items of an advertorial nature are not permitted

Sincerely,

Dr John Pluske
CEO and Chief Scientist

Research and Innovation

A request for applications for APRIL Innovation Project and Industry Priority Project proposals closed in October 2021, with six Innovation Project and four Industry Priority Project applications received. Following its meeting on 24 February 2022, the Board supported the recommendations from the R&D Advisory Committee (meeting held October 2021) and has supported the following projects:

Innovation Projects

• Heating up the house: Evaluating the effect of novel monitoring and heating systems on the productivity, welfare and economics of farrowing houses [Dr Maria Jorquera-Chavez, Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd.].
• Use of progesterone and GM-CSF to improve the fertility of extended semen (A/Prof Mark Nottle, The University of Adelaide).

Industry Priority Projects

• How low CAN you go?: Optimising the use of calcium nitrate (CAN) in gestating sow diets to reduce piglet birthweight variation and improve their lifetime performance [Dr Jessica Craig, Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd.].
• Literature Review: Identifying knowledge gaps and strategies to improve progeny uniformity of pigs [Dr Fan Liu, Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd.].

Congratulations to all those involved in the successful projects, and we look forward to seeing the outcomes from the projects and the benefits to the Australasian pork industry.

One of APRIL’s strategic imperatives is to seek leverage of its funds against additional investment in priority research, education and training, and commercialisation programs to achieve necessary scale for key industry outcomes. In this regard, APRIL continues its Kickstart program for the 2022/23 financial year, which is aimed at providing seed funding to individuals/organisations to put together a project submission that seeks significant external funding, such as the projects shown in the previous table. 

More details of the scheme can be found at https://apri.com.au/research/funding-opportunities/, or by contacting Dr John Pluske. Applications are open at any time.

As always, a reminder please that Project Leaders provide a Project Cash Expenditure Report and Project Quarterly Report for the quarters finishing 30 September 2021, 31 December 2021 and 31 March 2022 (and for some projects, 30 June 2021 and 31 March 2021). If needed, the Project Quarterly Report and Project Cash Expenditure report templates can be found at https://apri.com.au/research/project-reporting/. A growing number of projects have not reported their expenditures; hence, I would strongly encourage Project Leaders and administrators to submit reports for outstanding monies. However, any payments will not proceed without an accompanying Project Quarterly Report.

Education and Training

APRIL is pleased to announce a number of new education and training awards, as a result of a call for applications between November 2021 and January 2022, as follows:
Undergraduate/Post Graduate/DVM awardees:

• Kaitlin Beltakis, The University of Adelaide; Honours Award investigating the use of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) to improve the fertility of extended boar semen and increase embryo development (Supervisors: A/Prof Mark Nottle and Dr Nicole McPherson).
• Rutu Acharya, The University of Melbourne; support for training in bioinformatics and programming associated with a PhD program related to identifying potential predictors of tail biting outbreaks in pigs with intact tails housed under commercial conditions (Supervisors: Dr Lauren Hemsworth, Professors Paul Hemsworth and Alan Tilbrook).
• Soraya Haynes, Murdoch University; Post-Graduate ‘Top-Up’ for a PhD related to the assessment of the efficacy of disinfectants currently used in the Australian pork industry (Supervisors: Associate Professor Sam Abraham, Drs Mark O’Dea, Tim Hyndman and Rebecca Abraham).
• Sharif Islam, University of New England; Post-Graduate ‘Top-Up’ for a PhD investigating the level of inbreeding and associated genomic regions for inbreeding depression in pigs (Supervisor: Professor Susanne Hermesch).
• Bianca Hatze, The University of Sydney; DVM award for a project exploring whether the blood concentration of urocanic acid isoforms in domesticated pigs (Sus domesticus) varies according to season (Supervisors: Associate Professor Roslyn Bathgate and Professor Claire Wade).

Industry Placement Program (IPP) awardees:

• Dr Max Muller, The University of Queensland (in association with APRIL, SunPork and Ridley).
• Dr Nandi van Wyk (Apiam Animal Health/Portec Pty Ltd.).

APRIL wishes everyone the best with their respective awards, and looks forward to seeing the outcomes from the projects or contributions to the Australasian pork industry through the Industry Placement Program.

Call for Commercialisation Project Research Applications

Reducing variation in lifetime performance: Collection, storage and distribution of grain samples for in vivo and in vitro experiments, assessment of related grain chemical and physical characteristics, and management of the research data produced from experiments to improve the AusScan Online NIR calibrations.

Data collected from the Premium Grains for Livestock Project, CRC for an Internationally Competitive Pork Industry projects and CRC for High Integrity Australian Pork projects, and a current APRIL project, have been used to develop the AusScan Online near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) calibrations to predict the nutritional value of grains for livestock and various chemical and physical grain characteristics important to livestock production. 

APRIL manages the license for the commercial use of the AusScan Online calibrations and is responsible for ongoing research and the maintenance and improvement of calibrations. APRIL conducted research upgrading the poultry AME calibrations in 2018, and in 2021, The University of Melbourne was awarded a research project from APRIL in 2021 to upgrade the pig DE calibrations.

APRIL is inviting Commercialisation Project applications from an experienced and qualified team (or teams) with access to suitable facilities to provide the required specialisations to undertake this project. The research project will be for a 3-year period, 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2025.

The APRIL Commercialisation Project scheme requires a minimum level of co-investment of 20% cash (of the total project cost).

The project application form and accompanying information document and Guidelines are available from the APRIL website: https://apri.com.au/research/funding-opportunities/.

Project applications open on 4 April 2022 and close at 5 pm on 20 May 2022.

For further information or inquiries, please contact Dr Charles Rikard-Bell, Manager, Commercialisation and Research Impact (0439 513 723).

Commercialisation

APRIL continues to provide Early Harvest Reports to key customers and nutritionists. AusScan Online collates a significant number of scans from different regions across Australia every month. The report aids nutritionists in providing a rapid assessment of the new season’s energy values for each grain type across different regions in Australia for different animals. The AusScan Online Early Harvest Report for scans conducted in February 2022 can be found in this month’s edition of the Australian Pork Newspaper.

On 24 December 2021, APRIL received confirmation from the TNA (transnational access) program of the PIGWEB project (https://www.pigweb.eu; funded under the EU Horizon 2020 program) that a Stage 1 pre-proposal, Assessment of a commercially-viable enrichment ‘block’ for group-housed gestating sows (co-supported by Ridley), was successful, with an invitation to proceed to a Stage 2 application. The Stage 2 application will be submitted this month.

There is another round of this program commencing September 2022, hence if anyone is interested in a research project in partnership with APRIL to access facilities from selected EU countries, ranging from feed manufacturing to metabolism/physiology to production units, please make contact, and we can discuss possible options. Most of the facilities in the program are associated with a university or research institute. 

At its February 2022 meeting, the Board supported a new Commercialisation Project, Easing the weaning transition: pellet form and size to reduce the post-weaning growth check, with SunPork as the Lead Party and supported by Ridley. The project builds on a previously-funded APRIL Industry Priority Project, Easing the weaning transition: large piglets from large pellets, showing piglets had a greater level of interaction with larger pellets through object play, and more eating observations with large semi-moist extruded creep (SMEC). The project will be completed in September this year.

APRIL continues to build a relationship with grow^AG, managed by AgriFutures, seeking potential external investment into Commercialisation Projects and activities. grow^AG is a collaboration between the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (DAWE) and Australia’s 15 Research & Development Corporations (RDCs), aimed at connecting investors, corporates, start-ups, researchers, industry, government and universities from Australia and around the world to locate information and opportunities to deliver innovation back to the farm and the food supply chain. 

Please visit https://www.growag.com for further information. 

Next month, APRIL will launch its Product Development Scheme, a new initiative that can provide up to 50% of the costs of performing studies to assess new products (including services or technologies) in a commercial environment for the benefit of the Australasian pork industry. More information will be forthcoming at that time, or please feel free to contact Dr Charles Rikard-Bell, Manager, Commercialisation and Research Impact (0439 513 723), for information.

Research Snapshot

A Final Report has been received from The University of Queensland [Associate Professor Paul Jensen; inputs from the University of Southern Queensland (Dr Stephan Tait) and Murdoch University (Professor Navid Moheimani)] titled Bio-upgrading piggery biogas by growing algae, for value-add end uses (4C-119).
The core goal of the technologies studied in the project was to remove H₂S and CO₂ from piggery biogas to improve the safety of piggery biogas and to increase CH₄ concentrations. The project had two parts, with aims related to (A), the development of PPB (purple phototrophic bacteria) technology to remove H₂S from biogas, being (i) investigate a fully autotrophic process for sulphide removal via PPB to estimate sulphide removal rates as well as biomass yield, (ii) demonstrate PPB-based sulphide removal in a continuous process and identify important design parameters for a full-scale process, and (iii) assess the viability of a continuous PPB-based sulphide removal process, including comparison to existing desulfurization technologies. 

Aims related to (B), the development of algae technology to remove CO₂ from biogas, were to (i) integrate effluent treatment with biogas purification using a saline microalga, (ii) determine the growth characteristics, biomass composition and maximum quantum yields marine microalga Tetraselmis suecica using synthetic biogas as a source of CO₂, and ADPE (anaerobically digested piggery effluent) as a source of nutrients, (iii) explore the impact of pH and the resulting CO₂ partial pressure on microalgae growth, and (iv) assess the effect of CH₄ in biogas on microalgal cultivation of Tetraselmis sp.

For (A), the project was successful at proof-of-concept using PPB to treat a gas mixture containing 2,000 ppm H₂S, 30% CO₂ and ~70% CH₄ in a continuous process. The process achieved an average H₂S removal of 69-77% in the continuous process, with a maximum removal of 90%. The process can run chemical-free and can integrate with existing anaerobic pond technologies. The removal efficiencies achieved in the project reduced H₂S to levels suitable for on-farm uses such as boilers, CHP and microturbines, and therefore represent an alternative to conventional iron sponge scrubbers for on farm use. However, multi-stage rectors or a secondary treatment step would be required to achieve complete H₂S removal required for transport fuel uses and/or export into natural gas grids. 

However, the cost of the PPB process was estimated at approximately $85 kg S^-1; prohibitively high, with the major cost being the electricity used to irradiate the reactor overnight; these irradiation costs would need to be eliminated for PPB desulphurization to be viable. The PPB biomass generated in the process was high in protein and is a potential high-value by-product, but production rates were very low and not sufficient to generate any significant revenue to offset the high treatment cost.

In terms of part (B), the algal work, the project was successful at proof-of-concept using T. suecica to remove CO₂ and waste nutrients in a batch biogas-effluent treatment process. The process achieved a CO₂removal up to 94%. When applied to piggery biogas, the treated biogas could have a CH₄ content of 94 to 98%, making the upgraded gas suitable for use as a transport fuel (after compression) or to export biogas into centralised natural gas grids. Nutrients were removed from the wastewater during treatment; however, due to the high nutrient content of piggery wastewater, only a small portion of the available waste nutrients (~6% N and ~1% P) appear required to support sequestration of all CO₂ in the piggery biogas. No inhibitory effects were seen from the CH₄ content of the synthetic biogas. The next stage of development could be to explore a continuous process, possibly at pilot stage, to clarify the biomass yields, carbon uptakes rates, harvesting costs and allow a more detailed assessment of the viability of biogas-based microalgae cultivation systems.

Check the APRIL website, https://apri.com.au/research/project-reports/, for more details on this project, as well as other Project Summaries and Final Reports.

Member Focus – Mr Robert Parkes (Ridley Agriproducts Pty Ltd.)

The first animal I can recall seeing was a pig. I grew up on a piggery in north western NSW, and by the age of 11 was entrusted with looking after the piggery over a weekend when my parents were away. I had really wonderful animal husbandry mentors in my grandmother and father, and continue to apply those skills on my own farm (no longer pigs, however). I spent all my spare time on our piggery until the age of 18 when my parents closed the piggery. 

I continued my affinity with the pig industry throughout my undergraduate studies at the University of New England and was fortunate to receive a PRDC (Pig Research & Development Corporation, the predecessor to APL) undergraduate award. The award enabled me to complete my Honours project at a local piggery investigating ‘The effect of diversional stimuli, “Toys”, on the aggressive behaviour of weaner and grower pigs’. At the completion of my undergraduate studies, I completed post-graduate studies in business management and marketing and was fortunate to join Ridley. In my current role I manage our monogastric nutrition team, technical customer support and research and innovation.

In my almost 30 years with Ridley, I have worked in nutrition technical selling roles, technical management roles, quality management and general and business management. Across my career I have been aligned with the pig industry. I have been fortunate to sit on pig industry advisory committees in Victoria, the PRDC R&D committee, Pork CRC II R&D committee and also the APRIL R&D Advisory Committee. With a focus on animal feeding, I have filled many industry roles including President of the Stockfeed Manufacturers Council of Australia (SFMCA), Vice Chairman of the Grain Trade Australia (GTA) Board and Chairman of the GTA Standards Committee.

Ridley is a founding member of APRIL, and I believe bringing research breakthroughs to market will help drive improvement for the Australian industry. I would have loved to have had a ‘block thrown into the mix’ when I was completing my Honours project!

Introducing: Sophie Ward

Sophie developed an interest in agriculture after reading about Dr Temple Grandin, the American animal scientist that revolutionised animal handling and husbandry methods on farms. Inspired by the work conducted by Dr. Grandin, Sophie found herself drawn towards the way animals are treated in livestock industry, particularly pigs and poultry. This led her to study Animal Science at The University of Adelaide, taking part in a hobby group (Pig Club) that allows students to interact and care for pigs. With little knowledge of pigs, Sophie found it so interesting learning how funny and intelligent these animals could be, teaching her ‘pet’ pig to sit, spin and follow her hand. With financial support from the Australasian Pork Research Institute (APRIL), Sophie was able to pursue an Honours project with supervisors A/Prof. Roy Kirkwood and Dr. Kate Plush, focusing on farrowing assistance to sows in later parities.

Then, with the financial support of Australian Pork Limited, Sophie was fortunate to continue research with her supervisors, conducting a PhD on the management of sows and their litter around the periparturient period. Over this candidature, Sophie had the opportunity to work with Professor Sanjay Garg and his team at the Pharmaceutical Innovation and Development Group (PIDG), University of South Australia, to develop a non-injectable method for inducing sows to farrow over working hours. She submitted her PhD in February, 2022.

Post candidature, Sophie is now part of the team at APRIL, focusing on how precision livestock technologies can help rear pigs with intact tails as part of her Early Career Science Fellowship, funded through a successful CRC-Project obtained in 2021.

Papers and Abstracts

The 18^th Australasian Pig Science Association (APSA) meeting held in Brisbane in November 2021, with APRIL as Principal Co-Sponsor with APL, saw 15 abstracts from APRIL co-funded projects presented at the meeting. Two papers funded in part by APRIL were titled, “The correct single diet can replace phase-feeding in grower-finisher pigs without compromising growth performance and carcase quality”(Hewitt, R.J.E., Sampaio, M.O., Corso, A.C., Tritton, S.M. and D’Souza, D.N.), and “Commercial evaluation of a phase feeding strategy compared to a single diet strategy for grower-finisher pigs” (Ford, E.M., Liu, F., Brewster, C.J. and Henman, D.J.). Along with another paper on the same subject (“Feeding a single diet throughout the grower-finisher period produces comparative results to a phase-feeding program”; Zemetis et al.), considerable discussion occurred at the meeting in relation to the topic and the practical implications of the findings. 

All papers reported that feeding a specifically formulated single diet during the grow-finish phase, compared to a phase-feeding program, had no overall deleterious impacts on production or carcase quality. These results agree with the previous work of Dr Karen Moore presented at APSA in 2019 (APRIL project A3A-103: Feeding a single diet to pigs in the grower/finisher stage to reduce feed costs and improve feed efficiency). In some instances, there were cost benefits associated with the single-diet feeding strategy. However, as would be anticipated, responses were different, or of a different magnitude, depending on the type of production and close-out practices, genotype and sex of pigs used, and feeding a single diet during the grow-finish phase may not be applicable under all circumstances. 

These papers (and indeed all of the conference papers) can be accessed via https://www.apsa.asn.au/product/2021-manipulating-pig-production-xviii/ 

Events and Important Dates

1. British Society of Animal Science Annual Conference, 12-14 April 2022; EMCC Nottingham and Online (https://bsas.org.uk/conference).
2. 2022 Poultry Information Exchange (PIX) and Australasian Milling Conference (AMC), 15-17 May 2022; Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia (https://pixamc.com.au).
3. 15^th International Symposium on Digestive Physiology in Pigs (DPP2022), 17-20 May 2022; Rotterdam, The Netherlands (https://dpp2022.com).
4. ZeroZincSummit 2022, 22-23 June 2022; Copenhagen, Denmark (https://www.tilmeld.dk/zerozincsummit2022).
5. International Pig Veterinary Society Congress (IPVS), 21-24 June 2022; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (https://ipvs2022.com/pt/).
6. ASAS-CSAS Annual Meeting, 26-30 June 2022; Oklahoma City, OK, USA (https://www.asas.org/meetings/annual-2022).
7. 12^th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, 3-8 July 2022; Rotterdam, The Netherlands (https://wcgalp.com).
8. 34^th Australian Association of Animal Sciences (AAAS) Conference, 5-7 July 2022; Cairns, Queensland, Australia (https://www.animalscienceconference2022.com.au).
9. 19^th Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Production (AAAP) Animal Science Congress, 23-26 August 2022; Jeju Island, Korea (http://www.aaap2022.org).
10. 73^rd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Animal Production (EAAP), 5-9 September 2022; Porto, Portugal (https://www.eaap2022.org).

Successful Cooperative Research Centre-Project (CRC-P) Application

APRIL is very pleased to announce that an application submitted in Round 11 of the Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) government program titled Eliminating pig tail removal to improve welfare and industry sustainability, with SunPork Pty Ltd. as the Lead Applicant, has been supported by the Australian Government. View the announcement here.

Partners in this 3-year project are APRIL, Australian Pork Limited, PIC Australasia Pty Ltd., Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd., RSPCA Australia, The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland, and the University of New England.

The application requested, and received, an Australian Government cash investment of $2,892,374 over 3 years, which combined with the project partners’ cash contribution of $1,638,742 ($750,000 from APRIL), has been able to leverage an additional $3,345,078 of combined in-kind contributions from the partners. As the major cash contributor to the project, this represents an overall leverage for APRIL of ~ 10.5:1.

Dr Robert van Barneveld, Group CEO and Managing Director of the SunPork Group, says that the project will adopt a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to solving this industry-wide issue, with the aim being to provide pork producers with the confidence to raise pigs with intact tails while maintaining high standards of pig welfare.

APRIL CEO and Chief Scientist Dr John Pluske said the grant was noteworthy and timely, and directly addressed a key Transformational Project objective in APRIL’s Strategic Plan. The project will also provide opportunities for support and training for a number of Honours students, postgraduate students, and early-career scientists.

This successful CRC-P award is an excellent example of developing highly productive cooperative partnerships and making the most of world-leading research with organisations coming together to work in a collaborative and cohesive manner to address all-of-industry issues. The award also demonstrates the capacity for APRIL to successfully partner with other organisations to leverage external funding for a major research project of industry-wide importance.

For further information as to how APRIL can function to support industry-led research and development for the pork industry, please contact APRIL Chief Scientist/CEO Dr John Pluske.

Welcome to this edition of APRIL News. 

I mentioned in the last Newsletter that APRIL is involved in two large Transformation Project applications:

(1) an Australian Research Council (ARC)-Linkage application submitted through Murdoch University (Chief Investigators Associate Professor Sam Abraham, Murdoch University; Professor Darren Trott, The University of Adelaide) titled Novel approaches for combating critically important antimicrobial resistance development in pigs;  

(2) a Cooperative Research Centre-Project (CRC-P) application (Lead Applicant: SunPork Pty Ltd.) titled Eliminating pig tail removal to improve welfare and industry sustainability. 

We have since received news that the ARC-Linkage grant was unsuccessful in attracting this significant external funding. The application was placed in the top 10% of unsuccessful applications. This funding scheme is very competitive – the success rate was 24% – signifying the very strong level of interest from all manner of businesses and industries in Australia for support for R&D activities. Be this as it may, I believe there is still strong interest in pursuing these projects, and together with partners and collaborators, we will explore other avenues for supporting the work. 

We have yet to hear about the CRC-P application.

This month’s Research Snapshot focuses on a recently completed project conducted at Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd. exploring a number of additives included in the diets of late-gestation sows on aspects of sow and litter performance.

Our Member Focus this edition is on Professor Eugeni Roura, from The University of Queensland. Please read on for further information.

An APRIL Webinar will be conducted on 1 September at 11:00 AM (AEST) providing information on a number of nutrition-related projects (nursery pigs, grow-finish pigs, sows) completed or underway in APRIL. Information has already been sent out for this Webinar, but please contact either Dr Charles Rikard-Bell or myself if you require the information again. 

The Australasian Pig Science Association meeting (APRIL is co-Platinum sponsor) is scheduled (in a hybrid format) for 15-18 November this year, in Brisbane. It was pleasing to see a total of 15 abstracts from APRIL co-funded projects submitted for consideration for publication and presentation; thank you to all authors for submitting abstracts. Abstracts will be published in animal-science proceedings. Let us genuinely hope that we are all able to get together for this important conference.

Finally, APRIL would sincerely like to thank Windridge Farms Pty Ltd. and Blantyre Farms Pty Ltd., Elanco Australia and The University of Adelaide for supporting APRIL with their memberships. 

Sincerely,

Dr. John Pluske
CEO/Chief Scientist
M: 0410 436 871
E: j.pluske@april.org.au
www.april.org.au

Research and Innovation

One of APRIL’s strategic imperatives is to seek leverage of its funds against additional investment in priority research, education and training, and commercialisation programs to achieve necessary scale for key industry outcomes.

In this regard, APRIL is pleased to announce a continuation of its Kickstart program for the 2021/22 financial year, a program aimed at providing seed funding to individuals/organisations to put together a project submission that seeks significant external funding.

More details of the scheme can be found at https://apri.com.au/research/funding-opportunities/, or by contacting Dr John Pluske email here.

Applications are open at any time.

Education and Training

A PhD Scholarship Opportunity currently exists at The University of Queensland, and it is seeking expressions of interest for a PhD Scholarship in the field of piglet nutrition and digestive physiology. The candidate will become a key contributor to develop an exciting project based on promoting early feed intake and gastrointestinal development in piglets by enhancing the natural maternal bonds between sow and piglets, and other innate physiological mechanisms. The main aim of the project is to increase the resilience of piglets by promoting gut health early in life, hence reducing the reliance on antibiotic treatments. The project is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through the ARC-Linkage program, and is based on a multi-institutional collaborative research program that will involve leading research groups at The Universities of Queensland and Melbourne, and National and International partner organizations including the Australasian Pork Research Institute Ltd. (APRIL), leading Australian pork producers, and global leaders in feed additives.

The candidate will be based at The University of Queensland (St Lucia Campus). For more information, please visit www.scholarships.uq.edu.au/scholarship/phd-scholarship-how-make-antibiotics-pig-feed-redundant-naturally.

Congratulations go to Dr Jeremy Ayre with the conferral earlier this month of his PhD thesis through Murdoch University, titled ‘Advances in treatment of anaerobic digestate of piggery effluent using microalgae’. Jeremy and his work were funded originally through the Pork CRC and finished with APRIL. Jeremy’s supervisors were A/Prof. Navid Moheimani, Prof. John Pluske, Prof. Michael Borowitzka and Dr Sasha Jenkins. Jeremy has published a number of papers from his thesis, but if anyone would like a copy of his PhD, please let me know.

Commercialisation

APRIL is pleased to announce a new addition to its AusScan Online service through Aunir: a calibration to measure faecal starchcontent in dried faeces, for ruminants. As a part of the Premium Grains for Livestock Program, from which the current digestible energy (DE) calibration and apparent metabolisable energy for pigs and poultry, respectively, were established, research in cattle investigated the impacts of grain species, cultivar, grain processing methods and faecal sampling methods on energy and starch digestion in the digestive tract.

Monitoring starch digestion in feedlot cattle is valuable for determining the efficiency of grain energy use and identifying areas limiting enterprise profitability, such as energy utilisation and acidosis risk. Measuring starch digestibility in commercial feedlots is generally impractical, but there is a close association between total starch digestion and faecal starch content such that for a typical feedlot diet, a 1% increase in faecal starch content has been reported to result in around 0.68 MJ less energy available to each animal.

The AusScan Online faecal starch calibration established using more than 300 grain samples fed to cattle shows an excellent relationship (R² = 0.99) between predicted and measured faecal starch content (% dry matter), demonstrating a very robust model.

For further information regarding faecal sample collection and processing methods and the use of this calibration, please go to the Aunir website or contact Dr Charles Rikard-Bell, Manager, Commercialisation and Research Impact.

The agreement between APRIL, The University of Melbourne, and Feedworks, for the project Strengthening the AusScan Online Pig Digestible Energy (DE) Calibrations, has been signed. This project aims to strengthen the Auscan Online pig DE calibration through the conduct of ileal and faecal digestibility studies on new and existing connectivity grains, for inclusion in the NIR calibration. Studies will commence in the new year.

Research snapshot

A Final Report has been received from Dr Jessica Craig and colleagues [Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd.) that explored low dose dietary strategies in late gestation to enhance piglets born alive, piglet survival and performance, and subsequent sow reproductive performance. 

The main objective of the project was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of 0.15% β-hydroxy β-methyl butyrate (HMB), 0.15% N-carbamylglutamate (NCG) and 0.1% Ca(NO₃)₂ (calcium nitrate) to sows in late gestation on their litter performance and subsequent reproductive performance, relative to L-arginine supplementation. It was hypothesised that supplementation of these additives would increase piglet vitality at birth and therefore their overall performance to weaning, increasing the number and/or proportion of live piglets born and weaned.

The experiment was conducted from February to May 2020 using a total of 537 sows allocated to one of five dietary treatments at day 90 of gestation, balanced for sow parity (multiparous sows, parities 2-7) and body weight at day 90. The five diets consisted of: (1) CON – basal (control) diet (common gestation diet; n = 108); (2) ARG – basal diet + 0.5% added arginine (n = 101); (3) HMB – basal diet + 0.15% added β-hydroxy β-methyl butyrate (n = 107); (4) NCG – basal diet + 0.15% N-carbamylglutamate (n = 113); and (5) CAN –basal diet + 0.1% Ca(NO₃)₂ (n = 108). Sows entered the farrowing house at approximately day 108 of gestation and continued on their experimental diets until the day of farrowing. Sow body weight, P2 backfat, feed intake, total piglets born and born alive, stillbirth percentage, individual birth weights, and litter weights at birth, day 7 and day 25 of lactation were measured for each litter. Subsequent sow reproductive performance was also assessed.

The main outcomes of the study were: (1) supplementation of CAN improved birth weights of piglets and reduced the proportion of piglets born < 1.1 kg; (2) piglets born to sows supplemented with CAN had a higher pre-weaning survival chance; (3) supplementation of HMB improved the growth performance of suckling piglets from birth to weaning; and (4) subsequent sow reproductive performance was not impacted. From these improvements it was shown from a cost-benefit analysis that HMB and CAN were the most cost effective of the additives investigated. It was recommended that further research is required to confirm the optimal feeding time and inclusion rates of these additives. 

Check the APRIL website, for more details on this project, as well as other Final Reports and Project Summaries.

Member Focus – Professor Eugeni Roura (The University of Queensland)

Professor Eugeni Roura is a Professorial Research Fellow and Post-Graduate Coordinator in the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland (UQ). After obtaining a degree in Veterinary Sciences (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona; UAB) he focused his interest in non-ruminant nutrition and digestive physiology (PhD in Nutrition –University of California and UAB), and after working for the food and feed industries in R&D and technical executive management in a market-focused global environment, joined UQ in 2010. Professor Roura leads an active and growing research team with main interests related to the mechanisms involved in sensing dietary nutrients and their involvement in appetite modulation and food/feed intake in humans, pigs and poultry, and applied nutritional digestive physiology.

Professor Roura currently has a number of APRIL-funded projects including those related to improving feed efficiency, control of P2 back fat and maintenance of pork quality in finishing pigs fed bitter extracts, and exploring dietary strategies, metabolic biomarkers and microbiome signatures associated with heat tolerance in lactating sows. Together with colleagues at The University of Melbourne (Professor Frank Dunshea) and UQ (Professor Mike Gidley, Associate Professor Pat Blackall), and industry support from APRIL, DSM Nutritional Products and SunPork Pty Ltd., Professor Roura secured an ARC-Linkage grant in 2020 (commencing 2021) investigating how to make antibiotics in pig feed redundant, naturally.

This is an important project addressing issues related to antimicrobial use and resistance. The project’s approach is based on helping the physiology of the piglet rather than testing specific interventions against bacteria, and will consist of developing a novel nutritional strategy of naturally (through maternal conditioning) boosting the natural appetite and the capacity to digest in piglets early in life. The anticipated outcome is that the new perinatal program will result in minimal bacterial proliferation and diarrhoea thus, negating the need for in-feed antimicrobials in piglets.

In addition to being a busy and active researcher, in his spare time, Eugeni is an active Member of both the APRIL Research and Development Advisory Committee and the Education Advisory Committee, Member of the AgriFutures Chicken Meat Advisory Panel, Vice-Chairperson of the Board Specialty Committee of Mongolian Medicine, and Member of the International Steering Committee of the Digestive Physiology of Pigs. In particular, he was the co-Chair of the highly successful Digestive Physiology of Pigs 2018, held in Brisbane.

Important Dates

• The Australasian Pig Science Association (APSA) Biennial Conference will be held from 15-18 November 2021 in Brisbane, Australia (see: https://www.apsa.asn.au/ for more information).
• 1 September 2021; APRIL Nutrition Webinar

Welcome to the second APRIL News for 2021.

I mentioned in last month’s Newsletter that the APRIL Board approved a number of Innovation Projects at its February meeting, as well as an Industry Priority Project. The five Innovation Projects (subject to any changes being approved) are:

• Investigating the impact of circulating creatine concentrations in gestation on vitality and survivability of low birthweight piglets (Dr Will van Wettere, The University of Adelaide);
• No pus please – real time detection of deep tissue abscesses in carcasses using lean meat yield estimation (Dr Darryl D’Souza, SunPork Pty Ltd.);
• Escaping the daily grind – coarser ground diets for improved foetal growth (Dr Kate Plush, SunPork Pty Ltd.);
• Novel aspirin supplementation during gestation to improve farrowing rate and piglet birth weight of sows mated in summer [Dr Fan Liu, Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd.];
• Brain measures of positive welfare in pigs (Professor Alan Tilbrook, The University of Queensland).

I look forward to these projects being finalised and underway.

The Industry Priority Project approved, submitted by Professor Tariq Ezaz from the University of Canberra (subject to changes being approved), is titled Developing high throughput molecular screening technique to detect reciprocal translocation in boars. This follows on from promising work revealed in a project funded by APRIL in its first investment round in 2018, examining the impacts of reciprocal chromosomal translocations in boars and its impacts on litter size.

This month’s Research Snapshot focuses on a project conducted at Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd. in conjunction with The University of Melbourne, assessing the relationships between digestible energy intake and performance and body composition changes in entire male and female pigs weighing between 60-108 kg using a DXA, or dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, scanner, in a modern genotype. Further details can be found later in the Newsletter.

Our Member Focus this edition is on Associate Professor Sam Abraham, from Murdoch University. Dr Abraham is known to many of us in the industry, and please read on for further information.

Finally, a friendly reminder to Project Leaders about some reporting procedures and practices. Project Leaders should be aware that it is an obligation under the Research Deed, signed off by all participating organisations in a project, to report quarterly to APRIL on projects. If your project is going to encounter difficulties or you wish to discuss a change, please contact either myself or Dr Rikard-Bell first and don’t leave it to a quarterly report to notify us, especially one that is in arrears, because that can sometimes make financial planning and facility utilisation difficult and have unforeseen consequences. In this respect, please be aware that invoices submitted to APRIL for payment not accompanied by the corresponding reports will not be paid.

Sincerely,

Dr. John Pluske
CEO/Chief Scientist
M: 0410 436 871
E: j.pluske@april.org.au
www.april.org.au

Research and Innovation

I thought I would bring you up to date with two large project applications that APRIL is involved in that address the Transformation Projects outlined in the Strategic Plan. The first, with APRIL as a Partner Organisation, is an Australian Research Council-Linkage application submitted through Murdoch University (chief investigators Associate Professor Sam Abraham, Murdoch University; Professor Darren Trott, The University of Adelaide) titled Novel approaches for combating critically important antimicrobial resistance development in pigs. This project also involves inputs and collaboration from Australian Pork Limited, Feedworks, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd., Statens Serum Institut (Denmark), SunPork Pty Ltd, the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. The outcome of this application should be known in the next 4-8 weeks.

The second project addresses the elimination of the need for tail docking in Australasian pork production systems. In late March, an application was submitted to the Cooperative Research Centre-Projects (CRC-P) program titled Eliminating pig tail removal to improve welfare and industry sustainability, to address this priority. The application requested an Australian Government investment of $2,892,374, which combined with the project partner’s cash contribution of $1,638,742, seeks to leverage $3,345,078 of combined in-kind contributions from the partners. Partners in the project are SunPork P/L (Lead Applicant), APRIL, Australian Pork Limited, PIC Australasia P/L, Rivalea (Australia) P/L, RSPCA Australia, The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland, and the University of New England. An announcement on the outcome would be expected late June/early July this year.

One of APRIL’s strategic imperatives is to seek leverage of its funds against additional investment in priority research, education and training, and commercialisation programs to achieve necessary scale for key industry outcomes. These applications are good examples of that potential leverage capability. In this regard, APRIL is pleased to announce a continuation of its Kickstart program for the 2021/22 financial year, a program aimed at providing seed funding to a researcher (or researchers) to assemble a project submission that seeks significant external funding. The submission to the Australian Research Council-Linkage scheme arose from a Kickstart application. More details of the scheme can be found at https://apri.com.au/research/funding-opportunities/, or by contacting Dr John Pluske. Applications are open at any time.

A new initiative supported by the APRIL Board at its April meeting is the APRIL Innovation Prize. This award will seek to encourage on-farm innovation amongst members, to boost on-farm technology use and adoption. Further details will be announced soon, but the overall intention is to encourage development (invention) and adoption of innovations to improve on-farm performance and (or) producer-led innovations resulting in new products, new methodologies etc., in areas related to APRIL’s Strategic Plan.

Education and Training

A reminder to everyone that applications for the APRIL Industry Placement Program (IPP) Award scheme are still open and close 21 May 2021, with the final date for decisions being late June to early July 2021. Applications must be lodged electronically by the applying business organisation, and include the name and qualifications of the proposed candidate, to Dr. John Pluske at j.pluske@april.org.au. See http://apri.com.au/education/  for more information and the application form.

The overall aims of the IPP are to (1) retain graduates trained by APRIL, the Pork CRC, Australian Pork Limited, and (or) other applicable organisations, at the Honours and (or) postgraduate level, and attract others to the Australasian pork industry, by sponsoring their placement in a commercial pork production organisation or an affiliated business within the Australasian pork industry in a structured and enhanced development program; (2) attract and stimulate graduates with an interest in pork production into the business side of the industry as a career, while continuing their development and understanding of how research and technology will enhance industry competitiveness and success; and (3) expose graduates wanting a long-term research or technical support role in the industry to commercial aspects of pork production and enhance their contributions and value to pork businesses in their future roles.

Commercialisation

The APRIL Commercialisation Advisory Panel (ACAP) was announced in the last Newslettter. This is a new initiative from APRIL that will provide not only a sounding board for a potential commercialisation opportunity to an Innovator, but also allow us to preview potential commercialisation ideas and opportunities prior to a formal application for support. Use of the ACAP to review potential commercialisation opportunities will provide an Innovator(s) with industry insights, possible barriers the idea will need to overcome, and suggestions that will improve the pathways to commercialisation and adoption. We hope that the process will increase the number and improve the chances of commercialisation projects coming to fruition, and assist in maintaining a healthy innovative commercial pipeline for APRIL with benefits to industry. 

The Panel will convene again this month to review some interesting ideas that have potential commercial applications. If you have an idea for the ACAP or wish to discuss in more detail how the ACAP functions, please contact Dr Charles Rikard-Bell, Commercialisation and Research Impact Manager (c.rikardbell@april.org.au 0439 513 723).

Research Snapshot

A Final Report has been received from Dr Fan Liu [Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd.] and colleagues at Rivalea and The University of Melbourne. This project (A3A-102) examined relationships between digestible energy intake and performance and body composition changes in entire male and female pigs weighing between 60-108 kg using a DXA, or dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, scanner, in a modern genotype (Primegro^TM Genetics, Corowa, NSW, Australia). Quantifying energy requirements for expressing lean tissue (muscle) deposition potential in finisher pigs will help nutritionists set daily energy allowances to maximise lean tissue growth without excessive fat deposition, thereby optimising the price producers receive for their pigs. Considerable body composition analysis using the DXA scanner was conducted at the start and end of the study, and then pigs were slaughtered in a commercial abattoir where the HSCW (Australian Trim 1 standard) and P2 backfat thickness and loin depth were measured.

The most significant finding from the study was in the amount of whole-body fat and P2 backfat thickness, with there being 16% and 15% less body fat in entire males and females, respectively, and a 22% and 15% lower P2 backfat thickness in entire males and females, respectively. These changes presumably reflect the emphasis on selection for backfat depth reduction that has occurred over time. Importantly, protein deposition rate of entire male and female pigs in the carcase both increased linearly with increased energy intake in the tested range. Carcass P2 backfat thickness increased linearly in response to the increased daily energy intake in male pigs but not in female pigs.

It is important to point out that these findings reflect those of this particular genotype and the conditions of the study (individually-housed pigs reared under good conditions), hence it is likely that other genotypes will respond differently to the energy levels used in this project. Indeed, other factors such as housing and environmental conditions (e.g., outdoor versus indoor), immunocastration, time of the year, target carcase weight and P2 (if appropriate), stocking density and feeding regimens need also to be considered when determining nutrient and energy requirements. Nevertheless, the information from this project does provide new information for the industry, and it does show the change over time in pigs’ body composition as a result of genetic selection.

Check the APRIL website,https://apri.com.au/research/final-reports/, for more details on this project, as well as other Final Reports and Project Summaries.

Member Focus

Dr Sam Abraham (S.Abraham@murdoch.edu.au) is Associate Professor of Microbiology in the College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. Sam grew up in Kerala, south-west India, and in 2006 received a BSc Zoology from Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala. Sam then moved to the University of Wollongong to undertake a Masters in Biotechnology and subsequently completed a PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Biology from the University of Wollongong in 2012, undertaking his research at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Research Institute, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries. In 2012, Sam moved to The University of Adelaide to undertake a post-doctoral research fellowship in antimicrobial resistance with Professor Darren Trott, and along with Professor Trott established the First National Network on Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance in Australian Animals. In 2015, Dr Abraham joined Murdoch University, where he currently leads the Antimicrobial Resistance and Infectious Diseases (AMRID) laboratory (https://www.amrid.com.au).

The AMRID laboratory is a next-generation research facility at Murdoch University designed to modernise and innovate approaches to the surveillance and management of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and infectious diseases spanning humans, animals and the environment. A hallmark of the AMRID research is use of custom-built, high-throughput robotics platforms. The flagship platform, RASP, was designed to erode longstanding constraints to the scalability of AMR and disease surveillance and has played a central role in several national AMR surveillance programs in livestock. Key pork-related projects underway in the Laboratory include two APRIL-supported projects, “Novel approaches for reducing antimicrobial resistant and pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria in the porcine gut” and “Development of a Streptococcus suis vaccine via measurement of immune responses to four different Streptococcus suis vaccine preparations, using an Australian cps2 ST25 strain”, and the Laboratory has also conducted research for Australian Pork Limited including clarification of the origin and ecological reservoir of unusual forms of critically important antimicrobial resistant E. coli in Australian pigs. Services offered by AMRID Include antimicrobial resistance surveillance, non-notifiable disease investigation, whole genome sequencing and drug discovery. These are vital projects for the Australian pork industry addressing this important topic.

Important Dates

• Applications for the APRIL Industry Placement Program close on 21 May, 2021 (https://apri.com.au/education/).
• The Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition in Australia (RAAN) meeting will be held on the Gold Coast (voco Surfers Paradise) June 9-11, 2021 (https://www.raan.com.au).

The Australasian Pig Science Association (APSA) Biennial Conference will be held from 15-18 November 2021 in Brisbane, Australia (see: https://www.apsa.asn.au/ for more information).