An appeal to help small-lot producers appreciate the value of biosecurity has spun into a short course on everything a backyard producer needs to know to start raising pigs.
In mid-September, Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC) wrapped up a three-part webinar series that covered the basics, from breed characteristics and pig behaviour to understanding regulations and livestock codes of practice.
The series was developed after Alberta Pork approached AFAC for help delivering the message about biosecurity to small-lot producers, said Annemarie Pedersen, executive director for AFAC.
The non-profit group, of which Alberta Pork is a founding member, has been running courses for backyard and non-commercial chicken producers as well as other livestock keepers, said Pedersen. It was a natural fit for the organization when Alberta Pork asked for some help.
AFAC staff worked with Javier Bahamon, quality assurance and production manager for Alberta Pork and veterinarian Kelsey Gray from Red Deer-based Prairie Swine Health Services to develop and present the webinars.
Pedersen said organizations working within the livestock industry are seeing an increase in the number of people who are interested in keeping a small number of livestock, especially in response to the restrictions and isolation that have been part of the COVID-19 pandemic first announced in March of 2020.
“People are starting to get interested in where their food is coming from, so I think Alberta Pork recognizes that and, as we know (African Swine Fever) is a huge concern for the pork industry and there is a responsibility for anyone, if they have two hogs or if they have 2,000, to know what the rules are and to ensure that they’re doing the right things to protect all hog producers.
“This program came out of that, and Kelsey had done a similar program in British Columbia and so had a lot of the resources.”
Pederson said the working group involved in developing the program decided to start with the three-part webinar and see how much interest it would generate, with plans to expand offerings in the future.
Roughly 80 people registered for the first series. The number of people who actually participated was fewer, but everyone who registered was also given access to the recording so they could watch it later and benefit from the information as well as the questions and comments from producers. AFAC staff have noticed a significant number of people have looked up the recordings, she said.
The link for recorded sessions includes a variety of online resources, including Alberta Pork’s handbook for small producers. AFAC will ensure that anyone who did not register in advance can gain access to the recordings, said Pedersen.
Roughly 90 minutes each, the sessions are organized around three themes: Introduction to small-scale pigs; breeds, behaviours and handling, and feed, water and waste.
While the webinars go well beyond biosecurity, Gray’s presentations discussed the way provincial regulations and national livestock codes are applied to all pig producers and demonstrated in stark terms the need to protect all pigs from foreign animal diseases that could devastate the industry.
After discussing special considerations for securely fencing pig pens, Gray spoke about the dietary choices that small producers might consider. She included and repeated a warning that pigs should not be fed meat of any sort, nor should they be offered table scraps because those foods may have come into contact with meat.
Gray opened up this portion of her presentation with slides from the aftermath of a food and mouth outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2001.
Meats can carry foreign animal diseases such as ASF which survive cooking, curing and freezing and can therefore infect pigs that consume them, said Gray.
It is therefore illegal in Canada to feed meat to pigs, and that includes table scraps and discards because those foods may have been in contact with meats, she said.
“On top of getting your pigs sick, a real big concern we have is introducing foreign animal diseases into Canada. Canada exports 70 per cent of our pork. Even though that maybe is not relevant to you in particular, when we look at the whole Canadian situation it’s really relevant, because it’s huge for our economy, it’s huge for employment opportunities for people, it’s huge for our global food supply, it’s just a very serious situation.
“In Canada, if we were to get foot and mouth disease or African swine fever, the implications are really serious. Overnight, this would close our export access, we’d have huge job loss, we’d have massive depopulation, people would have to say goodbye to their own loved pets on small farms, and it has serious mental health implications for farmers and anyone in the industry.”
She said the saddest story she has ever heard was during veterinary school, when one of her professors – a veterinarian from the Netherlands – described depopulating herds after FMD.
“That outbreak started by someone feeding garbage to pigs.
“That’s why we have this rule.”
Gray said it’s vital that potentially contaminated meats do not get into the population of feral pigs that run free in a number of provinces and states, including Alberta and Saskatchewan.
If someone were cleaning out some old food and fed contaminated meat to an outdoor pig, there is potential for that animal to pass the infection on to the feral pig population. Once it gets into a sounder of roaming swine, there will be no way to contain it, she said.
Keeping all meat away from pigs is one thing small producers can do to protect the industry and asked those hearing her message to pass it along, she said.
AFAC is now laying plans for its 2022 Animal Care Conference, to be held in March and wrapped around the theme of managing livestock emergencies. Details are yet to be worked out and the format will depend on any pandemic restrictions that may remain at the time.
Pedersen also asked that Hog Country readers be reminded of the 24-hour ALERT line, 1-800-506-2273 and of the availability of livestock emergency trailers in case of a collision or other emergency, such as a barn roof collapse or fire. The trailers, which contain equipment for handling all types of livestock, are spotted around the province and are available by calling 9-1-1 or the AFAC ALERT line.
Please visit afac.ab.ca to learn more. •
— By Brenda Kossowan
