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Bio-security on farms critical

BARBADOS - A good bio-security programme is essential to any pig rearing enterprise, such that pig farmers, who are not cleaning and disinfecting throughout their production cycle, will lose a large proportion of their pigs and ultimately their profits.

That is according to Dr. Rosina Maitland, Veterinary Services Unit, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as she spoke on the topic of Bio-security on Pig Farms at the Barbados Association of Pig Farmers Seminar, at the Grand Barbados Beach Resort yesterday morning.

Contending that improper bio-security results in loss in production and loss of piglets, she added that poor disinfection could also undermine any programmes, even the best management programme or even wipe it out. With this in mind, she contended that terminal disinfection thorough cleaning and disinfecting of the pens from top to bottom should be carried out between each batch of pigs. Maitland added that an all in and all out (AIAO) system, a highly recommended practice in bio-security should also be practised.

AIAO, she explained, means that when you move pigs out of the pen, all of them go to market, and you do not move them back, as moving them back causes disease to build up in the pens. The agriculture ministry official is also advocating the use of wheel dips and foot dips on the farm. The former, she explained, should be placed at the entrance of the farm and be deep enough and long enough that the entire surface of the wheels can pass through the dip and be completely covered by disinfectant, while the foot dips should be placed at the entrance to the pens to make sure that the boots of any person going into the pen would be completed immersed and disinfected.

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Source: Barbados Advocate

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