Figure 2. Using a snare on a pig.

Using the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway to engage with smaller pig producers

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a highly contagious virus. Transmission occurs through direct contact, airborne particles and contaminated surfaces, with clinical signs...

Figure 1. Many farmers feel helpless in the face of a tuberculosis outbreak — the new BVA policy on TB draws on the social science of behavioural changes as well as the best available evidence.

The veterinary surgeon and the farmer — controlling TB farm by farm

In updating our position, we recognised a number of things. First, that as a representative body for veterinary surgeons throughout the UK, we wanted to be able to consider how TB in cattle affected...

Managing BVDV at the herd level part 2

Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is a costly disease and its eradication is the focus of the English voluntary scheme, BVDFree. The process of identifying a farm as negative or not negative is...

Would a veterinary surgeon manage COVID-19 this way?

The difficulties in controlling the coronavirus pandemic is a reflection of the unmanageable biosecurity risks of large numbers of people moving between populations and dispersing within those...

Figure 4. Example illustration from the author's bovine viral diarrhoea virus teaching for farmers.

Managing BVDV at the herd level part 1

The first step in assessing a herd is to identify the risk of current infection by evaluating biosecurity and management. Primarily, this should focus on incoming stock (purchased animals and existing...

Figure 2. Sows in oestrus will attract boars.

Biosecurity

Biosecurity is a word coined to describe the concept where pathogens' access to a farm is restricted, controlled, reduced or eliminated. It must be remembered that biosecurity is not disease control...

Figure 4. Pooled faeces sampling using the sock method ensuring that all areas of the farm are sampled.

Salmonella spp. in pigs: an update on diagnostics and control

Sampling on farm is important to determine the areas of the unit which have high environmental Salmonella spp. contamination. The most common samples include individual pig faeces, pooled faeces...