Oppurtunities for introduction of a pig health monitoring scheme in Hungry

Pig diseases, and especially the management related diseases cause consider able losses to both the primary producers and the meat industry. In order t o reduce the losses Hungary also has to adopt slaughterhouse pig health mon itoring schemes. Producers and veterinarians should utilise existing data o n these systems. On the basis of earlier domestic experiences and well established systems a pplied in the Netherlands, Denmark, UK, USA and South Australia co-workers of the Department of Animal Hygiene of the Budapest University of Veterinar y Science set up a pig health monitoring service at the Balmazujvaros Slaug hterhouse and kept it in operation since the beginning of 1998. The service was adapted to Hungarian conditions and is monitoring the herd level preva lence and severity of pneumonia, pleuritis and/or pericarditis, nephritis, roundworm infestation and sarcoptic mange. The paper discloses the method of collection and analysis of data and prese nts examples of interpreting results.