Abstract
African swine fever (ASF), erysipelas and many other infectious and parasitic diseases have seriously compromised the future of pig industry in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Since implementation of biosecurity measures (BM) is known to reduce the risk of disease transmission, the objective of this study was to describe the pig farming management system as well as the biosecurity practices on pig farms in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Therefore, 97 farms were investigated using a face‐to‐face interview‐based questionnaire. Biosecurity practices were divided in three components: isolation, traffic control and sanitation. The results revealed that the majority of farms were extensive (73.22%), farrow‐to‐finish farms (59.79%) and essentially raising crossed‐bred (72.75%). The most practiced BM regarding ‘isolation’ were as follows: maintenance of the minimum distance between farms (56.06%) and dispatching of animals of same age in the same room (97.16%); for ‘traffic control’, the measures included the following: assignment of specific tools and equipment (96.86%) to a specific piggery; concerning ‘sanitation’, daily cleaning (97.06%), as well as using disinfectants (89.13%) were mostly implemented. The measures less implemented for ‘isolation’ included fencing (11.83%), compliance with the all‐in all‐out principle (10.11%), use of specific clothing (6.03%) and quarantine (7.69%); for ‘traffic control’, the less adopted measures comprised visitor hands washed before animal handling (11.65%), respect of linear flow principle (13.52%). Concerning ‘sanitation’, these measures included functional footbath (29.90%), processing of drinking water (27.84%) and cleanout (18.14%). The biosecurity level was low, intermediate and high for 73.71, 21.55 and 4.73% of farms, respectively. This low level suggests that ASF and other diseases are likely to remain endemic. The most important measures of concern and to improve are as follows: not feeding kitchen waste to pigs; keeping other livestock species away from pigs; fencing pig barn; keeping newly arrived animals in quarantine, not exchanging boars; not selling sick animals.
Highlights
Pig production has been increasing in the world, with animal number growing from 856 241 to 977 021 thousand heads in 2000 and 2013, respectively (FAO, 2015)
African swine fever (ASF) and erysipelas alone are responsible for heavy losses due to outbreaks that occur almost every year in Cameroon (MINEPIA, 2009)
Despite the usefulness and impact of biosecurity measures (BM) adoption, no informa‐ tion to assist policymakers in pig industry is available regarding the level of biosecurity implementation in pig farming in the Western Highlands of Cameroon where a number of infectious and para‐ sitic diseases occur (MINEPIA, 2009)
Summary
Pig production has been increasing in the world, with animal number growing from 856 241 to 977 021 thousand heads in 2000 and 2013, respectively (FAO, 2015). Biose‐ curity is defined as ‘the implementation of measures that reduce the risk of introduction and spread of disease agents; it requires the adoption of a set of attitudes and behaviours by people to reduce risk in all activities involving domestic, captive/exotic and wild ani‐ mals and their products’ (FAO/ OIE/ World bank, 2010). Despite the usefulness and impact of BM adoption, no informa‐ tion to assist policymakers in pig industry is available regarding the level of biosecurity implementation in pig farming in the Western Highlands of Cameroon where a number of infectious and para‐ sitic diseases occur (MINEPIA, 2009). The three main objectives of this study were (a) to provide the general characteristics of pig farm‐ ing, (b) to characterize the biosecurity practices and (c) to assess the biosecurity level of pig farms
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