title: Options for managing animal welfare on intensive pig farms confined by movement restrictions during an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
abstract: An outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Australia would trigger a major disease control and eradication program that would include restriction of movement of live animals within defined disease control zones. Experiences from outbreaks in other countries show that restrictions that limit the ability to turn off stock can lead to animal welfare compromise on intensively managed farms that are not infected with the disease. Intensive pig farms are considered to be at high risk of developing welfare problems during a control program due to the imposed movement restrictions and limited space available to house growing pigs. This study was designed to investigate strategies that could be used to mitigate animal welfare problems on intensive pig farms during a simulated outbreak of foot and mouth disease in a livestock dense region of Australia. Three strategies for managing farms affected by animal welfare problems were assessed, including on-farm culling of grower and finisher pigs, on-farm culling of finisher pigs only, and permit-based movement of finisher pigs to slaughter at abattoir. Under traditional approaches of giving infected premises (IP) priority over culling of farms with welfare problems (WP), delays of up to 25 days were experienced prior to culling of WPs. Deployment of vaccination did little to reduce the delay to culling of WPs. These delays were sensitive to resources available for control, with reduced resources increasing the time until welfare problems were addressed. Assigning equal priority to all farms requiring culling regardless of status as IP or WP and culling each as they arose reduced the delay to culling of WPs to no more than 4 days without large increases in either the duration or the size of the outbreaks observed.
authors.affiliation: Australian Government Department of Agriculture, GPO Box 858, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia. Electronic address: iain.j.east@agriculture.gov.au.
authors.forename: I J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: East
authors.affiliation: Australian Government Department of Agriculture, GPO Box 858, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia. Electronic address: sharon.roche@agriculture.gov.au.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Roche
authors.affiliation: Australian Government Department of Agriculture, GPO Box 858, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia. Electronic address: rachel.wicks@agriculture.gov.au.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Wicks
authors.affiliation: Animal Health Australia, 26-28 Napier Close, Deakin, Australian Capital Territory 2600, Australia. Electronic address: kdewitte@animalhealthaustralia.com.au.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: de Witte
authors.affiliation: Australian Government Department of Agriculture, GPO Box 858, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia. Electronic address: graeme.garner@agriculture.gov.au.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Garner
mesh_terms: D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D005536:Foot-and-Mouth Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D014186:Transportation
keywords: Animal welfare; Disease management; Foot and mouth disease