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Foot-and-mouth disease
You have an important role to play in protecting your property and the entire pork industry from biosecurity threats.
On this page, you will find the tools to implement the simple, everyday biosecurity practices to protect the health of your livestock, limit production losses and help maintain market access for Australia’s pig farmers.
Pigs | Feeding your pigs
FMD and ASF are both very serious diseases that can affect pigs. Australia is currently free of these diseases, however there have been recent cases on FMD in Indonesia. To learn more about the diseases, and how you can prepare, click here (for FMD) and here (for ASF).
Protect your pigs from mosquitoes which are the major vector for JE, read more here or download our handy factsheet here
As a pig farmer, the number one way to protect yourself from biosecurity risks is to keep diseases, pests and weeds out of your piggery business. Australian Pork Limited has developed a number of tools and resources to help you keep your pigs healthy and protect the entire industry from disease risks.
For more information visit the Pig Biosecurity Management Planning Resource page here.
The National Farm Biosecurity Manual for Pork Production was updated in October 2021 to align with changes to the Australian Pork Industry Quality Assurance Program (APIQ✓®). The manual outlines the minimum biosecurity requirements that producers should implement on-farm. It is designed as a tool that all pig producers, particularly those with larger scale enterprises who employ significant numbers of staff and/or contractors, can use to translate biosecurity requirements into operating procedures and work instructions. It should be read as a first point of call for all pork producers and used in conjunction with our other biosecurity toolkit resources.
PigPass is one part of the industry’s comprehensive traceability system. It is the pork industry’s National Vendor Declaration (NVD) scheme, which ensures that movements of pigs are documented, and in the event of a problem, are traceable. If you need to move pigs off your property then you will need a PigPass NVD. This NVD records the number of pigs moved, the Property Identification Codes (PIC) of the properties involved, the tattoo number of the pigs and other important information.
Feeding ‘swill’ to pigs is illegal in all states and territories of Australia. Feeding swill to pigs is the most likely way that Australian livestock may be exposed to an exotic disease agent like foot and mouth disease.
Swill includes meat or meat products, or anything that has been in contact with meat or meat products. Swill may include food scraps, bakery waste and waste from restaurants. It generally does not include tallow, gelatin, dairy products or commercially rendered meat and bone meal or fish meal. For more information download the swill feeding fact sheet or visit the Feeding your pigs page.
Should an emergency animal disease (EAD) such as African swine fever (ASF) or foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) occur, pig owners and biosecurity emergency responders will need to quickly work together to minimise the impacts. Information about on-farm activities is vital to help responders determine how and where the disease has spread, the risk of further spread, and actions to contain and control the disease outbreak.
This checklist builds on biosecurity planning and will support readiness in case of an EAD by summarising the specific information that is needed to inform emergency response decision-making. Use the checklist to review and verify your records against what will be needed and use the notes column as a quick reference for where you keep these records. The checklist also includes handy templates for recording data.
As a pig farmer, enhancing your biosecurity knowledge is critical; online training courses, hosted by Animal Health Australia, offer an easy way to stay updated and safeguard your farm’s future.
African swine fever (ASF) is an infectious pig disease that is not present in Australia. However, this disease is spreading across the world where it is devastating pig industries in affected countries. The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) has developed this online course to provide you with the information you need to help protect our industry and communities from the potential impacts of ASF.
Read the course information sheet
APIQ✓® is the Australian Pork Industry Quality Assurance program. It uses the principles of Hazard Analysis and managing Critical Control Points (HACCP).
APIQ✓® provides the framework and standards by which Australian pig producers can demonstrate they are responsible farmers who care for their animals, the environment and their customers by following safe and sustainable practices.
Biosecurity is one of the five major components of the APIQ✓® program, helping you manage health risks to your pigs, to other pigs and people.
