Agrawal Isha, Bromfield Corinne, Varga Csaba
Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States.
Agriculture and Environment Extension, College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States.
Front Vet Sci. 2023 Jun 9;10:1167056. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1167056. eCollection 2023.
There is a growing risk to the health and productivity of the Illinois and United States swine population from foreign and endemic infectious diseases. Effective on-farm biosecurity practices play a pivotal role in preventing these high-consequence pathogens from affecting swine farms. Veterinarians are essential in providing disease prevention advice to swine producers that can help them implement effective biosecurity practices on their farms. Our descriptive study objectives were to assess Illinois swine producers' and veterinarians' biosecurity perception, knowledge, and practices to identify knowledge gaps and address these by developing an online educational website. We developed two independent online questionnaires using Qualtrics software. Swine producer members of the Illinois Pork Producers Association and veterinarians registered with the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association were contacted via e-mail through their associations and asked to complete an online survey. In total, 13 swine producers across 9 Illinois counties operating 82 farms (8 managed single farms and 5 managed multiple farms) responded to the swine producer survey. Despite some biosecurity awareness among swine producers, the need for a biosecurity-related outreach program was evident. Among the 7 swine veterinarian responders, 5 predominantly treated swine (oversaw an average of 21.6 farms), and 2 were mixed animal practitioners. The swine veterinarian survey showed a disconnect between their biosecurity perception and practices. We developed a biosecurity educational website and used Google Analytics to collect website traffic and user data. The 4 months of data showed good coverage that included the highest proportion of users from the Midwest and North Carolina, the largest swine-production regions in the US, and China and Canada, the leading producers of swine worldwide. The most accessed webpage was the resources page, and the swine diseases page had the highest engagement time. Our study highlights the effectiveness of combining online surveys with an educational website to assess and improve the biosecurity knowledge of swine producers and veterinarians that can be applied to assess and improve the biosecurity knowledge and practices of other livestock farmers.
外来和地方性传染病对伊利诺伊州及美国猪群的健康和生产效率构成的风险日益增加。有效的农场生物安全措施在防止这些高后果病原体影响养猪场方面起着关键作用。兽医在为养猪生产者提供疾病预防建议方面至关重要，这些建议可帮助他们在农场实施有效的生物安全措施。我们的描述性研究目标是评估伊利诺伊州养猪生产者和兽医的生物安全认知、知识和做法，以识别知识差距，并通过开发一个在线教育网站来解决这些问题。我们使用Qualtrics软件开发了两份独立的在线问卷。通过伊利诺伊猪肉生产者协会，以电子邮件方式联系了伊利诺伊州猪肉生产者协会的养猪生产者成员以及在伊利诺伊州兽医医学协会注册的兽医，并要求他们完成一项在线调查。总共有来自伊利诺伊州9个县的13位养猪生产者经营着82个农场（8个经营单一农场，5个经营多个农场）回应了养猪生产者调查。尽管养猪生产者有一定的生物安全意识，但显然需要一个与生物安全相关的推广项目。在7位回应的猪兽医中，5位主要治疗猪（平均负责21.6个农场），2位是混合动物从业者。猪兽医调查显示他们的生物安全认知与做法之间存在脱节。我们开发了一个生物安全教育网站，并使用谷歌分析来收集网站流量和用户数据。四个月的数据显示覆盖面良好，其中来自美国最大的养猪生产地区中西部和北卡罗来纳州以及全球领先的养猪生产国中国和加拿大的用户比例最高。访问量最大的网页是资源页面，猪病页面的参与时间最长。我们的研究强调了将在线调查与教育网站相结合以评估和提高养猪生产者和兽医的生物安全知识的有效性，这可用于评估和提高其他畜牧养殖户的生物安全知识和做法。
