Pig farmers urged to take part in new research project
21st Nov 2016 / By Alistair Driver
Farmers who finish pigs are being encouraged to take part in a new project looking at the welfare, health and performance of pigs.
The research is being led by veterinary surgeon and PhD student, Fanny Pandolfi, of Newcastle University, who is looking to interview farmers about biosecurity and management on pig farms and test the effectivness of a new online tool to assess farm biosecurity.
She has issued a message to pig farmers.
"We would like to invite you to take part in a new project that aims to enhance the performance, health and welfare of British pigs.
"We have developed a novel, questionnaire-based tool which allows pig producers to perform a self-assessment of on-farm management and biosecurity.
"This is part of an overarching EU project, ProHealth: www.fp7-prohealth.eu.The information obtained by this questionnaire will be treated with the highest confidentiality and only be used for the purposes of the ProHealth project."
Taking part
The first step is to complete a biosecurity and management questionnaire which takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete. It can be viewed here
The second step is to contact Dr Pandolfi - to arrange a farm visit to complete a secondary questionnaire, providing the opportunity for more detailed discussion.
Dr Pandolfi said: "We would like to thank you for your time and consideration; we strongly believe that your participation would enhance the quality of our study."