Pig and wild boar as carriers of zoonoses

This paper deals with zoonoses in European pig herds and wild boars in gene ral and in particular with the risk of infection carried by veterinarians, farmers and workers handling pigs and pork in slaughterhouses and meat proc essing companies. Furthermore the risk of infection and intoxication as a r esult of pork consumption is discussed. Special reference is made to the re sponsibility of veterinarians for keeping production animals healthy and in forming animal owners and consumers about zoonoses. It would appear that it will be necessary in future to intensify veterinarian herd care, perform r egional monitoring and surveillance programmes, participate in establishing specific pathogen-free herds and to foster diagnosis and research into zoo noses together with human medicine.