Farmscape for December 6, 2018

The CEO of the Prairie Swine Centre says over the past 25 years issues related to animal welfare have become an increasingly important component of research.
To make sure the Prairie Swine Centre remains connected to the needs of Canada's swine sector, it's in the process of reviewing its strategic plan.
Dr. Murray Pettitt, the CEO of the Prairie Swine Centre, says the intent is to consult with stakeholders, identify the challenges they face, and any knowledge gaps and determine what would benefit them the most.

Clip-Dr. Murray Pettitt-Prairie Swine Centre:
There are four historical pillars of research at the swine centre, nutrition, animal ethology, welfare and behavior and engineering.
Those are the public research programs as well as the contract research program which is sort of a private contracted research function that the swine centre can do for folks.
Those areas came out of consultation that was done at the inception of the centre over 25 years ago now and the need for that type of research was identified by the western Canadian swine industry and so the swine centre defined its mandate around the needs of the industry.
The swine industry has changed over the last 25 years.
There are fewer producers out there but there are many more larger producers so the customer for the swine centre information that we generate has changed so that's changed things a bit.
In terms of the influence on the research, welfare has become more and more important to everybody as the years have gone by.
Certainly that program has been doing more different kinds of things and trying to address some of those issues surrounding the welfare of the animals under our care.

Dr. Pettitt says the strategic review will take several months and the centre is just starting to interact with industry and ask questions.
He expects the process to be wrapped up sometime this coming spring.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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