Bioveiligheid op Varkensbedrijven: Ontwikkeling van een Online Scoresysteem en de Resultaten van de Eerste 99 Deelnemende Bedrijven

Abstract

Biosecurity includes all measures to prevent pathogens from entering a herd and to reduce the spread of infections within the herd in order to keep the animals 'healthy'. To quantify the biosecurity status of a pig herd, a scoring system has been developed. This system quantifies all aspects of both external and internal biosecurity taking into account their relative importance in infectious disease transmission. This makes it possible to follow up herds over time and it can motivate the farmer to improve the biosecurity status of his herd. This scoring system was implemented in a website and can be freely filled in online. From December 2008 to August 2009, 99 pig farmers voluntarily filled in the questionnaire. The average score for external biosecurity is 65/100 and the average score for internal biosecurity is 50/100. There are big differences between the scores of different farms. The results also show that on 92% of the herds the score for external biosecurity is higher than the score for internal biosecurity. These results indicate that there is room for improvement in many of the herds, especially with regard to internal biosecurity.