Risk factors for pig disease
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Research partners: Newcastle University, SAC, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Livestock Management Systems
Industrial partners: BPEX, NPA, Assured British Pigs, Genesis Quality Assurance, Quality Meat Scotland, Agrosoft
Sponsors: Defra
Project duration: 2006 – 2009
This project was designed to generate information which would be useful to develop herd health strategies for the British pig industry that will promote animal health and welfare, lead to improved productivity and to a reduced incidence of foodborne zoonoses including Salmonella.
Epidemiological analyses of farm risk factors for different disease conditions have been carried out by integrating anonymised information from existing industry databases. Information captured in abattoir health screening (BPHS, WPS, ZNCP) was linked to farm production characteristics recorded in Farm Assurance databases. This gave a working dataset of 505 farms recruited from the whole of Great Britain, with information on location, stock numbers and general housing and feeding characteristics, linked to more than 100,000 abattoir health records.
The analysis showed strong regional differences in the prevalence of many conditions: enzootic pneumonia-like (EP-like) lesions, pleurisy, ascariosis (milk spot liver), papular dermatitis, pericarditis and peritonitis. Housing type affected different health conditions in different ways, with solid flooring and bedding being associated with lower risk of EP-like lesions, pleurisy, tail damage and abscess, but higher risk of milk spot, papular dermatitis, peritonitis and pyaemia. Similar variation was found in results for feeding system, with wet feeding associated with increased risk of pleurisy and abscess, but reduced risk of milk spot, hepatic scarring, and tail damage. The extent to which such relationships are directly causal, or are associated with other linked housing and management characteristics of the farm, requires further investigation.
To give further information on health conditions during the growing period which might not be reflected in final carcass assessments, a simple on-farm health monitoring system was developed and piloted over a one year period on 32 farms in England and Scotland. The assessment of six clinical signs was recorded on a number of previously identified pig pens by farmers (or stockpersons) at monthly assessments. A vet recorded similar assessments at quarterly visits and logged additional data on farm health management procedures and performance, using a digipen to directly enter data into an electronic Pig Herd Health Plan (PHHP) developed earlier in the project.
Results from the pilot study showed good agreement between producer and veterinary assessment of the different health indicators: sneezing and coughing to monitor respiratory problems, scour on pigs and on floor to monitor enteric problems, scratching to monitor skin problems such as mange, and tail damage to monitor behavioural problems. The study showed very low prevalences of tail damage and scratching on pilot farms, comparable to the low overall prevalences in abattoir data. Coughing in older, but not younger, pigs was linked to EP-like lesions in abattoir scoring.
By using data collected for management purposes on individual farms in combined analyses at a national level, the industry can obtain a much better understanding of national disease patterns and risk factors. Such information can then be used to inform strategic decisions of BPEX and individual producers. The use of IT systems for recording and transferring such data allows this process to occur with minimal additional labour requirement.
A demonstration PHHP can be viewed at www.demo.phhpanalysis.com
Page last updated 08 June 2010