Weekly Overview: New Study Hopes to Shed Light on Worm Situation in Pigs

The survey from Moredun Institute hopes to gauge the behaviour of the livestock sector when buying and dispensing anthelmintic products.

Specifically, the researchers are keen to learn more from pig farmers as 40 per cent of the UK’s pigs are in outdoor herds.

“It would be great to get more interest from pig farmers,” Moredun's Professor Jacqui Matthews told ThePigSite, who described the issue of pigs and worms as a “black box”.

“There’s not much research in the field of worms and pigs in the UK. We know what the worm species are and what the worms can do, but we don’t know how many pig farms are monitoring their worm situation."

Take part in the the survey by clicking here.

In the US, Washington State health officials are investigating several cases and clusters of Salmonella infections that appear to be linked to eating pork.

The disease investigation shows a potential exposure source for several cases was whole roasted pigs, cooked and served at private events. The source of contamination remains under investigation by state and local health officials and federal partners.

George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health is also investigating pork safety.

The recent study of pork, chicken and turkey discovered that contaminated meat may be an important source of human exposure to Klebsiella.

"This study is the first to suggest that consumers can be exposed to potentially dangerous Klebsiella from contaminated meat," said Lance B Price, PhD, lead author of the study and a professor of environmental and occupational health at Milken Institute SPH.

In African Swine Fever (ASF) news, a further 302 cases have been reported in Ukrainian pigs.

The 302 cases were found on a farm in Kiev where 61,810 pigs were susceptible. Over 7000 animals were subsequently destroyed to control the spread.

Zimbabwe also reported ASF outbreaks in free-range village pigs in the Mashonaland Central district. It has been ten years since ASF was last detected in this area.

For cases in wild boar this week, Lithuania reported two outbreaks, Estonia 49 and Latvia 29.

The OIE reported no cases of ASF in Poland this week and, according to a Polish news website, the country is beginning to keep ASF under control through improved biosecurity and wild boar culls.

However, the veterinary services commented that it will take a long time to defeat it entirely.

Russia's integrated meat company Cherkizovo released details of its pork sales volume which showed that an ASF outbreak, affecting the company back in December 2014, has caused a fall of nine per cent in the first half of 2015 to 74 379 tonnes of live weight from 81 318 tonnes.