Toxoplasma gondii levels in swine operations: differences due to technology choice and impact on costs of production

Human toxoplasmosis is an infection that has multiple sources: consumption of pork and lamb, water, and handling cat litter and garden soil. While some are, many are not related to livestock production methods. Therefore, there are weak market signals to farmers to change pig production systems, even when there are clear data indicating that pig confinement systems significantly lower the probability of pork being contaminated with the parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. We investigated cost differences for pig production systems. While confinement buildings are more expensive, these costs are offset by the greater feed and bedding costs in non-confinement production. There is a “slight cost advantage” of $0.31 per hundred weight for pigs produced in a confinement system.