Management and biosecurity practices on pig farms in the Western Highlands of Cameroon (Central Africa)

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF), erysipelas and many other infectious and parasitic diseases have seriously compromised the future of pig industry in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Since implementation of biosecurity measures (BM) is known to reduce the risk of disease transmission, the objective of this study was to describe the pig farming management system as well as the biosecurity practices on pig farms in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Therefore, 97 farms were investigated using a face-to-face interview-based questionnaire. Biosecurity practices were divided in three components: isolation, traffic control and sanitation. The results revealed that the majority of farms were extensive (73.22%), farrow-to-finish farms (59.79%) and essentially raising crossed-bred (72.75%). The most practiced BM regarding 'isolation' were as follows: maintenance of the minimum distance between farms (56.06%) and dispatching of animals of same age in the same room (97.16%); for 'traffic control', the measures included the following: assignment of specific tools and equipment (96.86%) to a specific piggery; concerning 'sanitation', daily cleaning (97.06%), as well as using disinfectants (89.13%) were mostly implemented. The measures less implemented for 'isolation' included fencing (11.83%), compliance with the all-in all-out principle (10.11%), use of specific clothing (6.03%) and quarantine (7.69%); for 'traffic control', the less adopted measures comprised visitor hands washed before animal handling (11.65%), respect of linear flow principle (13.52%). Concerning 'sanitation', these measures included functional footbath (29.90%), processing of drinking water (27.84%) and cleanout (18.14%). The biosecurity level was low, intermediate and high for 73.71, 21.55 and 4.73% of farms, respectively. This low level suggests that ASF and other diseases are likely to remain endemic. The most important measures of concern and to improve are as follows: not feeding kitchen waste to pigs; keeping other livestock species away from pigs; fencing pig barn; keeping newly arrived animals in quarantine, not exchanging boars; not selling sick animals. K E Y W O R D SAfrican swine fever, biosecurity, erysipelas, Menoua, pig husbandry | 83 KOUAM et Al.

Appraisal of management and biosecurity practices on pig farms in Makurdi, Benue State, North Central Nigeria

“…Concerning biosecurity practices, perimeter fence was present in only 12% of the farms and all the farm visited did not have a sign board or any physical notice preventing access on farms for visitors. These results agree with the findings of Kouam et al (2019) in Western Cameroon. Physical barriers are meant to protect the herd from stray animals or human intruder entering the farm.…”

“…Family was by far the greatest source of labour. This finding is similar to that of Kouam et al (2019) in Western Cameroon. This study further reveal that the farmers are small scale farmers and as such generally have small flock size and hence family labour may be adequate.…”

“…Cobb Avian 48 (2006) stated that each farm must have a perimeter fence to prevent unwanted entry of people, vehicles and animals. Other animal species were found in 54.0% of farms, which is a serious biosecurity threat since cross transmission of pathogens between different species has been demonstrated (Wall et al, 1995, Kouam et al, 2019. Footbaths were available in only 24% of the farms, which can be explained by the small number of farms under intensive system in this study.…”

“…Thus, one of the important measures to increase pig productivity should focus on disease control. As such, implementation of biosecurity measures in pig production is of paramount importance to farm profitability (Kouam et al, 2019). Several pig diseases (intestinal and miscellaneous diseases) have been successfully controlled through the implementation of biosecurity practices in some EU countries (Wallgren, 2009).…”

Seroprevalence of hepatitis E in pigs and wild boars in the region of the city Belgrade

“…On the tested commercial pig farms, biosafety measures were at a high level as well as pig health status, according to the national legislation which refers to biosafety measures. Those measures are very important to stop spreading of different pathogens [23]. Despite those applied measures, faecal-oral route of HEV transmission, very high density of pig population at the farms, as well as close contact between pigs contributed to the seroprevalence being high.…”