Knowledge of zoonoses among those affiliated with the ontario Swine industry: a questionnaire administered to selected producers, allied personnel, and veterinarians

The challenges of pig farming in Hong Kong: a study of farmers' perceptions and attitudes towards a pig health and production management service

BACKGROUND

Pig farming in Hong Kong differs markedly from other places in the world, with a highly urbanised population, the majority of pigs being imported for slaughter, and limited on-farm veterinary support. Little is known about the barriers and attitudes of pig farmers in Hong Kong and their expectations of a new pig health and production management service provided by veterinarians. We collected qualitative and quantitative data to 1) describe pig farms, 2) identify barriers to pig farming in Hong Kong and 3) describe the perceptions of the new service. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify barriers and attitudes.

RESULTS

Eight and nine out of 38 pig farmers agreed to participate in the qualitative and quantitative components, respectively. All farms were farrow-to-finish farms with a median of 2800 (range 950 to 7000) pigs per farm. Three themes were identified during the interview analysis and could be ranked based on their importance to the farmers: the regulatory environment (Theme 1), veterinary support structures (Theme 2), and the sustainability of the pig industry (Theme 3). Farmers expressed dissatisfaction with the regulation of the industry and veterinary services on offer within Hong Kong. However, farmers did note that the provision of a new pig health and production management service was as a positive development. The public perception of pig farming, market forces, and competition from mainland pig farmers have resulted in sustainability challenges for the industry.

CONCLUSIONS

Farmers identified very specific local systems and challenges unique to pig farming in Hong Kong. The lack of veterinary support was one of these challenges and although a certain level of scepticism towards the new pig health and production service was expressed, farmers indicated their interest and listed areas where they would benefit from improved veterinary support. Prior experiences of veterinary services clouded farmers perceptions of the usefulness of a new service. To be successful in this environment, clear communication about the goals, role and limitations of the new on farm service is crucial, as is the alignment with the needs of farmers. Despite the small sample size, the qualitative methodology used allows us to assume that these themes give a general idea of what Hong Kong farmers' concerns and attitudes are.

Veterinarian barriers to knowledge translation (KT) within the context of swine infectious disease research: an international survey of swine veterinarians

Background

Food animal veterinarians face commodity specific and urgent global challenges yet conditions preventing use of best available knowledge have been sparsely studied. The American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) membership (N = 1289) was surveyed online to benchmark their information priorities and their motivations and sources for keeping current with infectious disease research, and to describe their reported time, skill, access, and process as barriers to knowledge translation (KT).

Results

Respondents (n = 80) were mostly from Canada (n = 40) and the U.S.A (n = 31) and demographics approximated the AASV’s. Colleagues are the first choice for information on difficult cases (49%, 95%CI: 38–61). Half of respondents (53%, 95%CI: 41–64) spend an hour or less per week keeping up with infectious disease research. The majority reported moderate or less than moderate efficiency (62%, 95%CI: 51–72), and moderate or greater stress (59%, 95%CI: 48–70) with their process for keeping up. Journal article methods sections are commonly not read, almost a third (32%, 95% CI: 22–43) reported either they do not evaluate statistical methods or that they had poor confidence to do so, and half (52, 95%CI: 41–63) could not explain ‘confounding bias’. Approximately half (55%, 95%CI: 41-69) with direct oversight of swine herds had full access to 2 or fewer academic journals. Approximately a third of respondents (34%, 95%CI: 24–46) selected only formats involving single research studies (either full text or summaries) as preferred reading materials for keeping current over expert summaries of the body of evidence.

Conclusion

KT barriers are considerable and a source of stress for many swine veterinarians. Sub-optimal efficiency with keeping up and low confidence to appraise aspects of research are concerns. Results are consistent with previous literature and illustrate need for improved KT infrastructure and for additional training in statistical methods and interpretation of primary research. Further evaluation is warranted of why approximately a third of veterinarians in this study, for the purpose of keeping up, preferentially choose to review individual research studies over choices that would include an expert summary of the body of evidence. Consideration of reasons for this preference will be important in the planning of KT infrastructure improvements.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s12917-020-02617-8.

Comparison of consumer knowledge about Campylobacter, Salmonella and Toxoplasma and their transmissibility via meat: results of a consumer study in Germany

BACKGROUND

Campylobacter is the most commonly reported causative agent of foodborne bacterial infection in Germany, and contaminated chicken meat is an important source of this zoonotic agent. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge of consumers in Germany about Campylobacter, Salmonella and Toxoplasma and their transmissibility via meat. In addition, we investigated the level of knowledge between selected consumer groups and whether the results coincided with those of international studies.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1008 consumers in Germany via an online panel to record, analyse and evaluate the state of knowledge about Campylobacter, Salmonella and Toxoplasma. The participants were selected according to age, gender and federal states to be representative of the German population.

RESULTS

Overall, 68.3% of the respondents had never heard of Campylobacter, 20.2% had heard of Campylobacter but did not know how to protect themselves, and only 11.5% knew how to protect themselves from Campylobacter infections. Slightly more than half (52.2%) of the respondents who had at least heard of Campylobacter knew that Campylobacter was transmissible via meat. Knowledge increased significantly with age. Participants over 60 years old knew about Campylobacter almost three times as often as the 16- to 19-year-old comparison group (OR = 2.982). Consumers who had at least a secondary school certificate were almost twice as likely to know about Campylobacter as those who had no school certificate or a lower secondary school certificate (OR = 1.899). Participants who were not actors in the food chain were significantly less frequently informed about Campylobacter than were those who were actors in the food chain. Consumer knowledge of Toxoplasma was better than that of Campylobacter. Consumers have the most knowledge about Salmonella.

CONCLUSIONS

Consumers in Germany are predominantly poorly informed about Campylobacter and the transmission route via meat. General knowledge of Toxoplasma is better than that of Campylobacter. Among the three pathogens, consumers are best informed about Salmonella. This finding highlights the importance of making existing information materials more accessible to consumers in the future to increase their knowledge, with the objective of reducing the incidence of Campylobacter infections.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance among backyard pig farmers in rural Shandong province, China

China is among the world's largest consumers of antibiotics for livestock, and the demand for meat protein continues to rise. Pig production takes place at a range of facilities, including backyard pig farms. The aim of this study was to describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices of backyard pig farmers concerning antibiotic use and resistance, and to observe household storage of antibiotics for use in pigs. We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey among 271 rural residents with backyard pig farms in 12 villages in one town in Shandong province. The median number of pigs per backyard farm was 14, and 82 % (222/271) of participants reported not having had any training about raising pigs. Eighteen percent of participants (48/271) reported always or often adding antibiotics to feed to keep pigs healthy and prevent diseases, and a third (88/271) of participants believed that pigs should be given antibiotics when they stop eating. Thirty percent (82/271) reported having bought antibiotics in the previous year without having first spoken with a veterinarian. Antibiotics accounted for over half of all medicines stored (55 %, 197/358), and were observed in 31 % of all households (83/271). Less than half of participants (45 %, 37/83) from households in which antibiotics for pig use were found knew that they were storing antibiotics. The most common class of antibiotics stored for use in pigs was (Q)J01C beta-lactam antibiotics, penicillins (19 %, 37/197), followed by (Q)J01F macrolides, lincosamides and streptogramins (14 %, 28/197), and (Q)J01M quinolones (12 %, 25/197). These results provide important insights into how backyard pig farmers are using antibiotics in rural China and suggest potential targets for interventions to reduce unnecessary and inappropriate use.

Antimicrobial use in Swedish farrow-to-finish pig herds is related to farmer characteristics

Background

Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem and reducing AM use is critical in limiting its severity. The underlying causes of antimicrobial use at pig farm level must be understood to select effective reduction measures. We previously showed that antimicrobial use on Swedish pig farms is comparatively low but varies between farms, although few farms are high users. In the present survey of a convenience sample of 60 farrow-to-finish herds in Sweden, we investigated farmers’ attitudes to antimicrobials and the influence of information provided by veterinarians about antimicrobial resistance. Farm characteristics were also recorded. We had previously quantified antimicrobial use for different age categories of pigs during one year, as well as external and internal biosecurity. Risk factors based on hypothetical causal associations between these and calculated treatment incidence (TI) for the different age categories were assessed here in a linear regression model.

Results

There were no significant associations between biosecurity and TI for any pig age category. Increasing farmer age was associated with higher TI for suckling piglets and fatteners. For suckling piglets, the age group with the highest frequency of treatment, TI was also significantly associated with farmer and education of the staff, where female farmers, and university educated staff was associated with a higher TI. Larger farms were associated with a higher TI in fatteners.

Conclusions

In the investigated Swedish pig farms, factors that influenced antimicrobial usage were more related to characteristics of the individual farmer and his/her staff than to biosecurity level, other management factors or farmers’ attitudes to antimicrobials.

Use of Bayesian Belief Network techniques to explore the interaction of biosecurity practices on the probability of porcine disease occurrence in Canada

Identification and quantification of pathogen threats need to be a priority for the Canadian swine industry so that resources can be focused where they will be most effective. Here we create a tool based on a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) to model the interaction between biosecurity practices and the probability of occurrence of four different diseases on Canadian swine farms. The benefits of using this novel approach, in comparison to other methods, is that it enables us to explore both the complex interaction and the relative importance of biosecurity practices on the probability of disease occurrence.

In order to build the BBN we used two datasets. The first dataset detailed biosecurity practices employed on 218 commercial swine farms across Canada in 2010. The second dataset detailed animal health status and disease occurrence on 90 of those farms between 2010 and 2012. We used expert judgement to identify 15 biosecurity practices that were considered the most important in mitigating disease occurrence on farms. These included: proximity to other livestock holdings, the health status of purchased stock, manure disposal methods, as well as the procedures for admitting vehicles and staff. Four diseases were included in the BBN: Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), (a prevalent endemic aerosol pathogen), Swine influenza (SI) (a viral respiratory aerosol pathogen), Mycoplasma pneumonia (MP) (an endemic respiratory disease spread by close contact and aerosol) and Swine dysentery (SD) (an enteric disease which is re-emerging in North America).

This model indicated that the probability of disease occurrence was influenced by a number of manageable biosecurity practices. Increased probability of PRRS and of MP were associated with spilt feed (feed that did not fall directly in a feeding trough), not being disposed of immediately and with manure being brought onto the farm premises and spread on land adjacent to the pigs. Increased probabilities of SI and SD were associated with the farm allowing access to visiting vehicles without cleaning or disinfection. SD was also more likely to occur when the health status of purchased stock was not known. Finally, we discuss how such a model can be used by the Canadian swine industry to quantify disease risks and to determine practices that may reduce the probability of disease occurrence.

Perceptions of antimicrobial usage, antimicrobial resistance and policy measures to reduce antimicrobial usage in convenient samples of Belgian, French, German, Swedish and Swiss pig farmers

We conducted a survey among convenient samples of pig farmers (N=281) in Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. We identified some significant differences among the five investigated countries (independent variable) regarding farmers' antimicrobial usage compared to their own country and worries related to pig farming (dependent variables), but most of the differences were rather small. In general, farmers perceived their own antimicrobial usage to be lower than that of their peers in the same country and lower than or similar to that of farmers from other countries. This may be a consequence of our convenience sample, resulting in self-selection of highly motivated farmers. Farmers were significantly more worried about financial/legal issues than about antimicrobial resistance. They believed that a reduction in revenues for slaughter pigs treated with a large amount of antimicrobials would have the most impact on reduced antimicrobial usage in their country. Further, farmers who were more worried about antimicrobial resistance and who estimated their own antimicrobial usage as lower than their fellow countrymen, perceived more impact from policy measures on the reduction of antimicrobials. Our results indicated that the same policy measures can be applied to reduce antimicrobial usage in pig farming in all five countries. Moreover, it seems worthwhile to increase pig farmers' awareness of the threat of antimicrobial resistance and its relation to antimicrobial usage; not only because pig farmers appeared little worried about antimicrobial usage but also because it affected farmers' perception of policy measures to reduce antimicrobial usage. Our samples were not representative for the national pig farmer populations. Further research is therefore needed to examine to what extent our findings can be generalised to these populations and to farmers in other countries.

Knowledge and attitudes toward food safety and use of good production practices among Canadian broiler chicken producers

Provincial broiler-chicken marketing boards in Canada have recently implemented an on-farm food safety program called Safe, Safer, Safest. The purpose of this study was to measure broiler chicken producers' attitudes toward the program and food safety topics and use of highly recommended good production practices (GPP). Mailed and Web-based questionnaires were administered to all producers registered in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec in 2008. The response percentage was 33.2% (642 of 1,932). Nearly 70% of respondents rated the program as effective in producing safe chicken, and 49.1% rated the program requirements as easy to implement. Most respondents (92.9%) reported that they do not raise other poultry or keep birds as pets, and 79.8% reported that they clean and disinfect their barns between each flock cycle. Less than 50% of respondents reported that visitors wash their hands or change their clothes before entering barns, 38.4% reported that catching crews wear clean clothes and boots, and 35.8% reported that a crew other than from the hatchery places chicks. Respondents who rated the program requirements as effective or easy to implement were more likely to report the use of five of six highly recommended GPP. Only 21.1% of respondents indicated that Campylobacter can be transmitted from contaminated chicken meat to humans, and 26.6% believed that antimicrobial use in their industry is linked to antimicrobial resistance in humans. Continuing education of producers should focus on improving their awareness of these issues, while mandatory GPP should include those that are known to be effective in controlling Campylobacter and Salmonella in broiler chicken flocks.