July 2025 - Journal FINAL - Flipbook - Page 5
Health
“Yes, biosecurity is a complex topic with many moving
parts—but that doesn’t make it optional.”
Adam Schelkopf, DVM
To reach their full potential, farms need systems
designed for all-in, all-out 昀氀ow with single-age groups
on site. This setup offers the best opportunity to
manage and reduce disease transmission between
groups. This often can mean evaluating:
• Size of your sow farm relative to the size of your
wean-to-market sites
• Total turn time of your system from the 昀椀rst delivery
to the last market pig sale
• Total wean-to-market spaces in your system
• Size of your wean-to-market sites
• Management, feeders, nutrition, ventilation, etc.,
that in昀氀uence pig performance
There are many elements we can evaluate, but this is
a great place to start and commit to as a standard for
your system design.
Commit to Biosecurity
Finally, we must protect the health we’ve invested
in—and that comes down to biosecurity and keeping
disease out.
In general, biosecurity standards in our wean-to-market
systems are lacking. Too often, we rely on general
practices or a loose understanding of what we should
be doing, without committing to real, enforceable
standards. Yes, biosecurity is a complex topic with
many moving parts—more than we can cover here—
but that doesn’t make it optional.
What we can do is commit to making biosecurity
evaluation a standard. That means taking a hard look
at our systems and creating clear, enforceable rules
that we’ll live by, day in and day out. Often, an outside
evaluation can expose simple opportunities to teach,
implement, and improve.
Making that outside review—and the commitment
to wean-to-market biosecurity—a standard for every
operation is a step we can’t afford to skip.
High standards drive us forward, helping us achieve our
full potential. This is especially true in pig production
and pig health. Farmers should regularly evaluate the
health standards on their farms and ask themselves—is
it time to raise the bar?
SUMMER 2025 | 5
