Reducing antibiotic usage on pig farms in Ireland

Ciarán Carroll, Edgar Garcia Manzanilla

Industry impact: Teagasc, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), pig veterinary practitioners (PVPs) and farmers, started using the biosecurity assessment programme BIOCHECK.UGent in 2016 and completed its implementation on more than 70 farms in 2017. The use of this tool results in significant improvements in husbandry practices, increases profits and reduces the use of antibiotics in pig farms. The first farmer using the programme in Ireland has been nominated EU Ambassador for Biosecurity 2017 within the EU PiG Horizon 2020 thematic network. This is a Europe-wide network developed to promote good practice in the pig industry and is made up of a consortium of 19 organisations from 13 EU member states (see: www.eupig.eu/). It is expected that the use of this tool will result in further improvement in coming years.

Contribution of non-research stakeholders: A collaborative approach was taken involving Teagasc researchers, Teagasc pig development officers (knowledge transfer), farmers, their PVPs and the DAFM.

Other contributors and collaborators: Jeroen Dewulf, Merel Postma (University of Ghent), Nola Leonard (UCD School of Veterinary Medicine).

Funding: DAFM project PathSurvPigs, Teagasc project FeedStrats, and the EU PiG project, a Horizon 2020 thematic network.