Farmscape for January 28, 2021

In an effort to help reduce the risk of African Swine Fever entering Canada, the Prairie Swine Centre is reaching out to small scale swine producers to assess and improve their understanding of on farm biosecurity and disease risk mitigation.
As part of a Swine Innovation Porc webinar earlier this month on African Swine Fever preparedness in Canada, participants were updated on a "Backyard Pig Farmer Survey" being coordinated by the Prairie Swine Centre.
Dr. Murray Pettitt, the CEO of the Prairie Swine Centre, says the goal is to better position the pork sector to communicate with the small scale producers about ASF and the threat it poses to the commercial pork industry.

Clip-Dr. Murray Pettitt-Prairie Swine Centre:
The overall objective of this study is to improve the understanding of the knowledge that small scale producers have about appropriate swine biosecurity practices and their implications for disease prevention in the Canadian commercial industry.
Within that there are two specific objectives we have.
One is to collect information from these producers.
What do they know about ASF, what do they know about biosecurity, what do they know about the risks of the commercial swine industry but also equally important is what motivates them?
Why do they have pigs, what drive their decisions?
It's probably a safe assumption that, in a lot cases, these motivators will be different than the commercial industry and we need to take that into account in designing effective messaging.
The second objective is to develop this messaging and really ensure that the small scale producers understand the critical importance of effective biosecurity, what's at risk to the commercial industry and what's at risk to themselves to because if ASF starts running through Canada, their animals are at risk too.

Dr. Pettitt says, in addition to the online survey, focus group will be set up to discuss the results of the survey and all of this information will be used to develop messaging and communication strategies designed to specifically reach small scale producers.
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Bruce Cochrane.

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