Antimicrobials and on-farm biosecurity

In addition to improving animal robustness, biosecurity is an essential part of disease prevention, both external biosecurity, defined as all the measures that minimise the risk of new pathogens entering the farm, and internal biosecurity, which deals with preventing the spread of diseases within the farm.

ISAP will identify on-farm biosecurity measures that minimise the transmission of pathogens in pigs, especially within production systems.

The latest report from the European Medicine Agency (EMA/61769/2016) demonstrates large differences in antimicrobial consumption between European countries, ranging between 418.8 mg/PCU reported from Spain to 22.3 mg/PCU from Finland. Less restrictive national policies tend to lead to increased use of different antimicrobial groups. ISAP will identify different strategies for treating important diseases in pigs, assess their efficacy and study the potential of alternative substances to improve animal health and replace antimicrobials.