Scotland reveals new pig health project

The Scottish pig industry and Quality Meat Scotland has unveiled a new health project to promote high health status in the national pig herd.

The health declaration project aims to support Scottish producers by ensuring growing, breeding stock, and semen imported in to Scotland are from a farm of known health status.

The form which was developed by a group of advisors to the Scottish pig industry requires the source herd of imported animals to sign a statement of the health status of their herd in relation to specific diseases, based on herd and abattoir inspections and laboratory testing.

Pig genetic companies although currently providing information on health matters, will need to provide all producers with a standard, informative declaration that describes the health status as accurately as possible before material is imported in to Scotland.

Although only small volumes of imports are for live animals and genetics, they represent one of the highest risks of importing disease in to the herd, said project advisor Jamie Robertson.

Robertson noted that while breeding stock tend to be relatively high health, the fact remains that the main route of disease transmission between farms is by live animals and their transport.

He added that health declarations are a standard item in Denmark, with results from the four-weekly testing of all breeding herds being made available on open websites within 24 hours. The target in Denmark has been to provide transparency on disease issues.

He also said that when producers are alerted early to health breakdowns in breeding herds it allows them to take early action to prevent or minimise the impact of any health issue on their own unit.