Future of biosecurity to be highlighted at Symposium 2022
By Bruce Cochrane & Lynn Redl-Huntington
The CEO of Farm Health Guardian suggests effective biosecurity requires a team effort. "Biosecurity: What’s New in Protecting Your Farm?" will be among the topics discussed as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2022 set for November 15 and 16 in Saskatoon.
Rob Hannam, the CEO of Farm Heath Guardian, suggests effective biosecurity is all about all of us working together.
“We all know how important biosecurity but we're people and it's easy to lose sight of that. It's hard to maintain your efforts on that day to day every day. But, if we look just on the horizon, whether it's disease issues in certain provinces, there's been PRRS issues or PED issues and those can be devastating and, if we look out just a little further, the whole sector has a significant risk of foreign animal diseases and I'm thinking about African Swine Fever. So, my talk will be about the future of biosecurity and new tools,” explained Rob Hannam, CEO of Farm Health Guardian.
Hannam and Farm Guardian Health is spearheading a Saskatchewan pilot project that testing new technologies that will help pork producers improve biosecurity and protect their herds from disease. Farm Health Guardian and Sask Pork are collaborating to trial truck movement recording technologies at over 20 swine farms or businesses in the province.
“When I think about biosecurity it's really all of us in this together. We're only as strong as the weakest link in our pork supply chain so it's really about a network effect and working together and protecting the entire sector. The second point I'll make is about digital tools. If I'm speaking with a producer and we're talking about biosecurity the first thing to come to mind would be cleaning and disinfection and that's right. Those are the things we should be considering. But we manage what we measure and if we start to measure biosecurity then we'll start to do a better job at that,” added Hannam.
Hannam says pork producers today do a fantastic job of measuring, tracking and managing feed intake and he suggests those same principles need to be applied to biosecurity.
Register now for the Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium. Symposium 2022 is recognized as one of Canada’s leading pork industry conferences attracting more than 250 producers, industry stakeholders and government representatives. Expert local, national and international speakers impart the latest information on hog production, animal health & welfare, new technology and the global outlook for the North American hog industry.
For more, visit farmscape.ca.