According to Mulindwa, a pig keeper and breeder at NAGRC, bio-security at the farm level is the set of practical measures taken to prevent the entrance of infection into a pig farm and control the spread of infection within that farm.
Bio-security can be looked at in two ways; guarding the farm against entry of disease-causing organisms and managing infection on the farm to prevent transmission to other pigs on the farm.
Effective bio-security may not come for free; you will spend some money.
For example, you need a perimeter fence around the farm to prevent the entry of unauthorized personnel, animals, birds etc.
You need to buy disinfectants, construct bathrooms for visitors to take a shower before accessing the pigs, buy farm attire for both workers and authorised visitors etc.
On the farm, especially for large farmers; you will need to provide different houses for different categories of pigs e.g. pregnant sows, farrowing sows, growers, cattle, for example, milkers, calves etc. All these will cost money.
Therefore, a written biosecurity plan is important and with it, farm workers can easily implement bio-security measures with the support of suggested structures.
The size of the farm doesn’t matter, especially if it is not the owner managing the pigs daily.
