Swine Health Blackbelt #16 - Heat stress in sows - can it affect litter performance too? by Dr. Jay Johnson

What if I told you that you could improve litter growth rate without any nutritional changes? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well in this episode with Dr. Jay Johnson, we discuss his research on sow heat stress and the impacts it can have on litter performance as well as technological innovations that can help reduce heat stress on the sows.

Meet the guest: 

Dr. Jay Johnson received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Missouri, and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University. After receiving his Ph.D. he went to Purdue University for his Postdoc. Dr. Johnson now works for USDA as a research animal scientist specializing in heat stress across multiple species, but primarily focuses on swine. The overall goal of Dr. Johnson's research program is to evaluate the impact of the environment (i.e., heat stress) and production stage on livestock physiology, welfare, and metabolic health to develop mitigation strategies that will improve animal well-being and productivity. He has received many awards including the USDA-ARS MWA Early Career Scientist of the Year award in 2019 and the Midwest American Society of Animal Science Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2021.