De minimis scheme for diagnostic testing
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BPEX Pig Health Improvement Scheme
(Reference DMA 003/2011)
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is the organisation that helps to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of various agriculture and horticulture sectors. Its BPEX division has responsibility for achieving this in relation to pigs in England.
What is the BPEX Pig Health Improvement Scheme?
This project aims to improve pig health in a collaborative and sustainable way by involving people from all parts of the supply chain.
This scheme will enable veterinary practitioners to help pig producers to improve the health status of their pig production holdings. It extends three existing projects in Yorkshire and the Humber, the East of England and the East Midlands. It is funded by AHDB pig industry funds and money being made available through the Rural Development Programme for England.
All pig producers in England and all veterinary practices are eligible to participate in this scheme.
The specific aims are to:
- Facilitate collaboration and co-operation;
- Promote high standards of biosecurity on pig farms and in the supply sector (eg haulage, deadstock collection and pig transport);
- Promote openness and honesty between producers so it is easier to identify and overcome the main challenges to the control and elimination of infectious diseases;
- Map the location and health status of pig herds – this will be made available online to members of the existing projects and to those involved in this scheme;
- Provide support and tools for producers to improve health status;
- Establish areas of disease freedom;
- Establish networks throughout the industry to withstand future outbreaks of disease.
A main focus of the scheme will be to identify herd level prevalences of swine dysentery, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (MHyo) and mange as well as levels of biosecurity (including amongst smallholders and at the abattoir). Cross-sectional serological data can help producers and vets to better understand which diseases are present within different age groups on-farm so they can identify the proportion of individuals that have been exposed to a particular pathogen and the age and time specific risk factors for infection.
BPEX expects the scheme to improve the ability of pig producers to overcome disease challenges on farm by using its results in combination with information on internal and external biosecurity, vaccination/medication usage and the location and disease status of units around the farm.
The results of the scheme will be made available on an anonymised basis on the BPEX website.
Applications will only be accepted from veterinary practices. These may be individual practices or a consortium of practices acting together. An individual must be named by the applicant as its contact point.
Any pig producer who wishes to participate in the scheme should discuss this with its usual veterinary practice, or another practice if that practice does not wish to apply.
For the scheme to be successful, producers must be prepared to share accurate information on the health status of the pigs on their unit(s) with other producers who are also named on the application form and who will meet as a group to discuss the results of the diagnostic testing.
The scheme will run from 3 August 2011 until 31 March 2012, and will close on 31 December 2012.
The closing date for applications is 24 February 2012
Page last updated
6 January, 2012