About us

Swine health solutions with you in mind

Precision is the future of all food production including pork and prevention is the foundation of precision.  In this series of articles, Dr. DiPietre will look at different aspects related with pig production and precision agriculture and what economic impact could they have in our farms.

Dennis DiPietre

received the BSA and MS degrees from the University of Arkansas and the Ph.D. with Research Excellence from Iowa State University in 1986 where he joined the economics faculty until 1991. During this period Dr. DiPietre was a Research Associate of the Columbia Center for Futures, Columbia University, New York. Dr. DiPietre has participated in continuing education from the USDA in Agricultural Ethics and from Harvard University (Senior Program on Negotiation) and the University of Chicago (Optimization Modeling in the Presence of Risk).

From 1991 until 1999 he served as Extension Associate Professor and Leader of the Commercial Agriculture Swine-Focus Team at the University of Missouri-Columbia. In addition, he was a member of the Value-added Advisory Board for Agriculture. Dr. DiPietre left the University of Missouri in 1999 and spent two years working in the area of e-commerce for agriculture as Vice President for Food Applications Group at E-Markets, Inc. and as the Associate Director of the Center for Information Systems and Structural Change at the University of Minnesota.

A consultant to agricultural and food industries since the mid 1980s, Dr. DiPietre now consults full time and currently works nationally and internationally with leading production companies, packers, genetics and pharmaceutical companies as well as the industry associations. Dr. DiPietre writes a periodic newsletter for industry executives and managers and focuses on innovation, precision production and marketing, cost containment, optimization modeling and negotiation.

A frequent speaker to pork producers, swine veterinary practitioners, industry and agricultural associations and industry management, he has co-authored a popular University textbook in Farm Management and contributed chapters to three other books as well as numerous refereed journal articles and contributions to professional meetings and societies. A published journal article co-authored by Dr. DiPietre was selected for inclusion in the Core Historical Literature of Agriculture at Cornell University, a selected compendium of the key contributions to agricultural science and literature over the last 200 years.

He received the 1997 Missouri Governor’s Award for Quality and Productivity, and while at university, numerous teaching and research awards. He is a Leman Fellow of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV).

During the last fifty years or so, disease control in the pork industry has evolved mainly relying on antimicrobials, vaccines, elimination (depopulation, repopulation, eradication, modified early weaning), and/or regional control depending on the disease.

John Harding

Professor Harding received his DVM, at Ontario Veterinary College, in 1988. Later in 1997 his MSc, from the University of Minnesota. He is also a Diplomate, American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (ABVP) — Swine Health Management, since 2008.

Dr. Harding teaches undergraduate students in all 4 years of the veterinary program. This includes core courses in swine production and diseases, as well as an advanced swine production medicine elective for students interested in pursuing careers in food animals. In the final year of the program, clinical rotations are available to encourage students to apply knowledge gained through didactic classes to real life situations. Dr. Harding consults with veterinarians throughout western Canada on challenging issues pertaining to emerging and common diseases impacting the swine industry, particularly related to diagnostic methods. Dr. Harding was awarded the Pfizer Carl J. Norden Distinguished Teaching Award in 2009.

The theme of Dr. Harding's research is emerging and re-emerging diseases of pigs. Earlier in his career, he co-discovered porcine circovirus type 2, and characterized its impact and epidemiology in affected farms. More recently, his research has focused on other novel diseases and syndromes, most notably "Brachyspira hampsonii" colitis and Periweaning Failure-to-Thrive Syndrome (PFTS). In addition, his current research aims to understand mechanisms associated with severity of reproductive PRRS, as well investigating prenatal immunologic programming associated with intrauterine growth retardation. Dr. Harding was awarded the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence in 2010.

Pig production has responded to the challenge of increased global demand for pork by a process of consolidation and increased size to capture benefits of economies of scale. Over the last 25 years the swine industry has evolved in order to increase production performance, health and animal wellbeing towards age segregated or multiple site production models. In general, it can be stated that the changes in production systems have produced a positive effect in the health status of pigs by improving the way we raise pigs today.

Eduardo Fano

Dr. Eduardo Fano received his DVM from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Mexico, in 1997 and later in 2000 his MSc. In 2007, Dr. Fano reiceved his PhD from the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, USA.

Dr. Fano taught several years at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Mexico. His core courses evolved around the topics histology, epidemiology and swine diseases, as well as applied epidemiology in swine farms.

Moreover, Dr. Fano worked as a consultant is several farms located in central Mexico, as Research and Development Coordinator and as Director of Technical Service. Since 2012, Dr. Fano has been working for Boehringer Ingelheim as Technical Manager supporting the US Mycoplasma, PRRS and PCV2 team.

Dr. Fano published over 10 peer reviewed scientific publications on Mycoplasma and Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome. He wrote more than 35 abstracts in proceedings and was a speaker at several international conferences.

Dr Oliver Duran, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ECPHM, MRCVS is a swine Veterinarian with over 25 years of experience in the field. He currently leads the Technical team in the Strategic Business Unit Swine in Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health. He is passionate about Preventative Medicine and ensuring that healthy pigs produce quality pork in the most sustainable way to ensure the highest animal welfare, food safety and profitability.