Dr. John Carr of Melbourne, Australia, BVSc PhD DPM, a veterinarian and a worldwide consultant to the animal production industry highlighted several issues in a recent sit down interview, just before he caught a flight back to Ukraine in February.
While not personal to Canada, the African Swine Fever in Eastern Europe could have some indirect effects, if it continues to spread.
Dr. Carr consults to various hog farms around the world in eight or nine countries and jetted over to the Ukraine, where a couple of his farms are right on the edge of the area with African Swine Fever.
“We have one farm under quarantine at the moment, because it was five km away from a positive case, but this is obviously very frightening,” he said. “From the Ukraine point of view, it is obviously quite serious because it limits Ukraine’s ability to export.”
On March 18, European media reported a small backyard farm having to slaughter pigs because of health officials detecting African Swine Fever (ASF) disease, about 80 km from the Russian border.
Dr. Carr says while the ASF in Ukraine is largely domestic, very small farms, six sows, or the wild pigs, and it is impossible to control where the wild pigs are so the Ukrainian pig industry is having to put much more effort into biosecurity, fencing and this sort of thing.
While Ukraine is a player outside of the European Union, the bigger worry for Dr. Carr is the fact Poland and 
the Baltic States are within the EU, and they already have the ASF virus present. “We watch, rather than get overly involved,” he said. “The big concern that I have, if you have a side, this is the eastern side of the outbreak of the African Swine Fever issues. So Russia moving into the Baltic States and into Ukraine, on the western side, it’s moving ever so slowly, but ever so consistently throughout Russia, and Russia borders China.”
While admitting it won’t be tomorrow, or anytime soon, he can see that in ten years, it could be over China’s borders and that will have a major play with global economies.
“From a Canadian point of view, we’re interested in China’s markets, so ASF will potentially affect our long term future,” Dr. Carr says. “Canada is interested in the European markets, even in the short term, ASF could play a role, particularly if it does disrupt a major player like Germany if it moves across, further. The European hog industry is struggling; it isn’t making that much money.”
Dr. Carr spent 10 days in Manitoba in February taking in what he calls a great show, the Manitoba Swine Seminar in Winnipeg which he thoroughly enjoyed.
“The thing that I’m particularly interested in, just with the people I work with here, is the new Pigs Code of Practice which will have some fairly major new ideas put into force in July 2016,” said Dr. Carr. “One of which is pain relief, boar castrations, and tail docking, and other constraints on euthanasia. The main concern with the euthanasia bit – I have no particular concern with blunt trauma when it’s done professionally, and the pig industry is full of professionals.”
When producers do it for little pigs, he thinks blunt trauma is a perfectly acceptable, welfare orientated method of euthanasia meaning ‘good death’ in Greek.
“I am concerned though by the subtext that if we’re going to use other methods, such as carbon dioxide, and have to sedate or anesthetize the pig before it goes in, I have a little concern,” he said. “An injection is still not the greatest thing for little baby pigs – Is not the injection quite painful in itself? I have my own little moral problems with some of these issues.”
Then on the other side, the nice concept of giving pain relief after castration and tail docking, what administration and what products are we allowed for this use, and how will they be administered. “Pain relief through an injection, a bit of an oxymoron, if that’s the right word.”
Dr. Carr says in looking at the new pig code of practice, it will not cost less to raise pigs in Canada. “All of these things are nice ideas, as a veterinarian, obviously I’m concerned about costs, but not at the expense of welfare,” says the widely respected world-wide veterinarian and hog farm consultant. “My duty is to give the pigs the best quality of life that I can for the six months or so while they are here with us, but it is not my responsibility, I think to determine when the pig dies.”
He commends the concepts.
“It’s just at my age, I’ve raised pigs for so long, I haven’t necessarily perceived as some of these operations as being as painful, but would I like my tail chopped off, probably not,” said Dr. Carr. “A bit of antiseptic might not do any harm. I want to make sure we don’t just do it for ourselves, so that we feel good, these things actually have to work. Five minutes of pain relief, that isn’t really answering the question to my mind.” •
— By Harry Siemens
