Abstract

BackgroundBiosecurity measures are important tools to maintain animal health in pig herds. Within the MINAPIG project, whose overall aim is to evaluate strategies to raise pigs with less antimicrobial use, biosecurity was evaluated in medium to large farrow-to-finish pig herds in Sweden. In 60 farrow-to-finish herds with more than 100 sows, the biosecurity level was evaluated using a previously developed protocol (BioCheck). In a detailed questionnaire, internal and external biosecurity was scored in six subcategories each. An overall score for biosecurity was also provided. Information regarding production parameters as well as gender and educational level of personnel working with the pigs was also collected. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the recorded data.ResultsThe median scores for external and internal biosecurity were 68 and 59, respectively, where 0 indicates total absence of biosecurity and 100 means maximal possible biosecurity. The subcategories for external and internal biosecurity that had the highest scores were “Purchase of animals” (external) and “Nursery unit”/“Fattening unit” (internal), while “Feed, water and equipment supplies” (external) and “Measures between compartments and equipment”/“Cleaning and disinfection” (internal) received the lowest scores. A female caretaker in the farrowing unit, a farmer with fewer years of experience and more educated personnel were positively associated with higher scores for some of the external and internal subcategories. In herds with <190 sows, fattening pigs were mixed between batches significantly more often than in larger herds.ConclusionsThe herds in this study had a high level of external biosecurity, as well as good internal biosecurity. Strong biosecurity related to the purchase of animals, protocols for visitors, the use of all-in, all-out systems, and sanitary period between batches. Still, there is room for improvement in preventing both the introduction of disease to herds (external) and the spread of infections within herds (internal). Systems for animal transport can be improved and with respect to internal biosecurity, there is especially room for improvement regarding hygiene measures in and between compartments, as well as the staff’s working procedures between different groups of pigs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13028-015-0103-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

  • Biosecurity measures are important tools to maintain animal health in pig herds

  • In pig herds, biosecurity is an important aspect of preventing the transmission of diseases, improving health and reducing the need for antimicrobials (AMs) [1]

  • As these practices apply to pig production in Sweden but not necessarily in other countries, differences in practices imply that results on health and biosecurity measures from other countries are not necessarily applicable to the Swedish situation

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Biosecurity measures are important tools to maintain animal health in pig herds. Within the MINAPIG project, whose overall aim is to evaluate strategies to raise pigs with less antimicrobial use, biosecurity was evaluated in medium to large farrow-to-finish pig herds in Sweden. Biosecurity is an important aspect of preventing the transmission of diseases, improving health and reducing the need for antimicrobials (AMs) [1]. In Swedish pig production, the use of antibiotics as growth promoters has been banned since 1986, sows have been kept in loose housing during all production stages including lactation since 1996 [13] and tail docking has never been practised. As these practices apply to pig production in Sweden but not necessarily in other countries, differences in practices imply that results on health and biosecurity measures from other countries are not necessarily applicable to the Swedish situation

Objectives
Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call