Weekly Overview: EU PIG to Improve Connection Between Producers and Science
ANALYSIS - The UK's Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is to lead an exciting new project that aims to improve the pig industry in Europe.EU PIG is a four-year €2 million project to look at health management, precision production, animal welfare and meat quality.
The project will be led by AHDB alongside a consortium of 19 organisations from all across Europe that represent 13 Member States and funded by the European Commission’s research and development programme, ‘Horizon 2020’.
In other news, the UK's annual David Black Award was presented to Dr Susanna Williamson, the veterinary lead for the Pig Expert Group at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
According to Dr Williamson, a partnership in the pig sector from stockmen and farmers through to vets and workers in the abattoir is needed to meet the threats to the industry and build a sustainable future.
She said that the industry needs to do more to secure exports in the future and she added that the success in developing a plan for dealing with the threat of PEDv (porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus) has come about by partnership.
“By sharing expertise and knowledge the chance of the disease entering the country has been minimised,” she said.
Dr Williamson, who is also the president of the Pig Veterinary Society, received the award for “a significant and lasting contribution to the British pig industry”.
In disease news, two new outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) have hit central Ukraine. Two commercial farms located in Sokolivka and Tetiyiv, both in the Kiev area, were confirmed as having ASF on 4 November.
Earlier in the week, six ASF outbreaks were also reported on commercial and backyard farms in the areas of Khar'kov, Odessa, Nikolayev and Poltava.
Russia also reported an outbreak this week on a commercial farm with over 43,000 pigs. The farm, located in Krasnyansky had to destroy over 18,000 pigs as a result of the outbreak.
Also in the news this week, read more from ThePigSite's visit to Denmark:
- Can We Manage Pigs Without Tail Docking?
- New Label Expected to Drive Welfare Improvements on Danish Pig Farms