An article published in the October issue of the Australian Veterinary Journal identifies management factors that would influence the establishment and spread of exotic diseases in pigs in the Sydney region.
Researchers identified and assessed swine producer practices that could assist the initiation and subsequent spread of exotic diseases in pigs. The survey occurred in 2 livestock yards during a 12 month period in the area around Sydney, Australia. The study included 305 sellers and 377 purchasers of the 13,869 pigs sold during the study period.
The survey identified a number of factors that could contribute to the introduction and spread of exotic diseases. These included: feeding meat scraps, poor farmer knowledge of exotic diseases, ineffective pig owner identification at salebarns, the practice of cash sales that precluded the collection of purchaser details, and inadequate identification of pigs. Tracing the movements of pigs under these circumstances would be difficult.
In this study, only 40% of the livestock purchasers were identifiable. More than one third of the 1749 transactions were for cash without the identity of the purchaser being recorded at the salebarns. Some 3% of pigs failed to sell and were returned to the property of origin. Two producers were found to be feeding meat scraps illegally.
[Ed. I would venture to guess that a similar survey conducted within the U.S. livestock industry would identify many of the same risk factors associated with animal identification and premises registration. The U.S. swine industry is way ahead of the other livestock sectors in implementing a meaningful system to allow for the effective tracking of animal movements when necessary. Unfortunately, the USDA’s insistence on relying on a voluntary system of animal identification and premises registration has slowed the adoption of these principles by many of the other livestock species groups.]
Source:
Australian Veterinary Journal, Volume 84 Issue 10