4 The Business of Canadian Hog Farming Better Pork | April 2024 national pork HEADLINES ONTARIO PORK HAS RECORD-BREAKING FOOD & FUNDDRIVE Ontario Pork recently hosted a recordsetting food and fund drive in Kitchener, Ont. to celebrate Canada’s Agriculture Day. The event, held at a Kitchener Rangers hockey game, drew in attendance from pork producers and members of the general public. A total of 1,071 pounds of food and $4,643.90 in cash donations were collected to provide 10,125 meals to those in need through the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. “The Food Bank of Waterloo Region was the real winner,” said Ontario Pork board chair John de Bruyn, in a release from Ontario Pork. “With help from the community we were able to do a great job collecting cash and food donations that will really go a long way to help those facing food insecurity.” This is the second food and fund drive event held at the Kitchener Auditorium this season. The event held on Canada's Agriculture Day broke the record and set a new one for total number of meals provided. “Seeing the food donation bins overflow, and seeing people make financial donations – it really warms my heart,” said Kim Wilhelm, CEO at the food bank. “We often think about donating at the holidays, but the reality is food insecurity happens 365 days a year, so all year-round events like these are important to help remember the more than 58,000 people living right here in Waterloo Region who are struggling to put food on the table.” Ontario Pork also sold copies of their book The Whole Hog to spectators who were interested in recipes, stories, and cooking tips from Ontario’s pork industry. The proceeds from these sales go to Feed Ontario, a food bank network in Ontario. BP New research at University of Manitoba and the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands may deliver new vaccines to improve health in swine herds. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is a significant concern for producers globally, and is estimated to cost the Canadian pork industry up to $130 million each year. It was announced recently by the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan that the collaboration between the research institutes has yielded new information about the virus that could be used to improve vaccine quality and protect producers from the costly disease. “This disease in pigs is important worldwide and is economically fairly significant,” said Dr. Marjolein Kikkert, associate professor of virology at Leiden University Medical Centre, in the announcement. “The aim of the project was to improve vaccines for this disease, and it turned out that it was very difficult.” The team, led by Kikkert and Brian Mark, dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Manitoba, focussed on changing the structure of the proteases used by PRRSV to suppress the immune system of its host. This change led to the ability to create altered viruses for the development of new vaccines. USask’s CLS assisted in the visualization of the PRRSV protease structure. This new approach will also be valuable to produce other new vaccines for both the pork industry and human medicine. This team has also used a similar approach in the formation of new vaccines for coronaviruses. “The trick and hypothesis we had for improving the PRRSV vaccine didn’t quite work,” said Kikkert. “However, we did learn a lot about how these viruses work. And it may certainly be a basis for further work into possibilities for improving vaccines against these viruses and coronaviruses.” BP RESEARCH MAY IMPROVE VACCINES Jodie Aldred photo
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