STUDIES OF ENVIRONMENTAL DATA AND BLOOD P ARAMETERS TO IMPROVE CHAIN-ENCOMPASSED HERD HEALTH MANAGEMENT IN PIG PRODUCTION

The main objective of many years' research projects was to develop a c oncept for an advisory system which should allow to record systematica lly risk factors for the health of piglets and fattening pigs and to h elp the farmer to carry out regular herd controls. Check-list for the recording of environmental and health data as well as a mobile labor w ere important components of this concept to recognise risk-factors on the spot. A ratio evaluation system was developed to calculate partial farm number values (PFNV) and farm number values (FNV). Used in a sup plier evaluation, it was possible with the help of an evaluation syste m in the frame of slaughterhouses' quality systems to rank farms and f arm parts as well as to identify disturbed processes and critical poin ts in the production. The validation of the check-list system in 37 fa rms showed a significant correlation from r = 0,49 to r = 0,80 between low FNV, PFNV and the output of the piglet production and the pig-fat tening process. Another objective of studies was to verify to which ex tent the measurement of various blood parameters on live animals gave information about subclinical diseases or organ modifications at the s laughterhouse. With the help of appropriate blood profiles, lung modif ications or pleuritis which had been summarised in a statistical model could be predicted before slaughtering in 66% in the given regression model.