Influence of veterinary herd health management on antimicrobial use on pig farms with regular antimicrobial use – economic evaluation of costs and benefits of antimicrobial reduction due to targeted veterinary herd health management (FitPig)
Contact person: Gertraud Schüpbach
Duration: till end 2017
This study is part of the “FitPig” project, a collaboration between various institutional partners (https://www.hafl.bfh.ch/forschung-dienstleistungen/agrarwissenschaften/nutztiersysteme-und-pferdehaltung/schweine-fleischqualitaet/fitpig.html): Within this framework, about 110 Swiss pig breeding farms and 110 fattening farms will be visited and data on antimicrobial use, management practices, production data and attitude of the farmer will be collected. In the retrospective part of the project (case-control study), the management practices of farms with and without regular preventive antimicrobial use will be compared. For the prospective part of the project (intervention study), about 80 breeding and 80 finishing farms with regular preventive use of antimicrobials will be allocated either to a control group (without extra veterinary assistance) or to an intervention group (with targeted veterinary herd health management). Approximately one year later the farms will be revisited and the two groups compared with respect to antimicrobial use, animal health and productivity. My part of the study, among others, will be evaluating the economics of reducing antimicrobial usage for the intervention group of the prospective study. The additional costs for veterinary herd health management and for the implementation of recommendations and lost benefits due to a potential reduction in animal health and productivity will be compared to the additional benefits due to a possible increase in animal health and productivity, and the reduced costs for veterinary interventions and antimicrobial treatments.
Other persons involved: Myriam Harisberger, Patricia Scheer (both / beide SGD), Peter Spring, Judith Peter-Egli (both / beide HAFL), Xaver Sidler (Vetsuisse Zürich)
