Biosecurity plans and worm testing program

Agriculture Victoria animal health and welfare staff are offering hands-on help to pig owners to develop an on-farm biosecurity plan from now until June 2024.

The importance of a biosecurity plan

Implementing an effective biosecurity plan is the key to reducing risks to pig health, including emergency animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease and African swine fever.

These diseases are not present in Australia.

The biosecurity plan will help pig owners identify risks to health of their pigs and the steps to take to reduce these risks

A biosecurity plan should address the range of potential disease pathways and highlight areas to improve biosecurity.

Worm testing program

Along with help developing a biosecurity plan, Agriculture Victoria staff will also undertake free worm testing for pig herds. The property visits and sampling are undertaken voluntarily.

The service is being targeted at people who have a small or medium-sized herd or just a couple of pigs. But commercial owners are also welcome to participate.

As part of the program staff will visit the property to assist pig owners with setting up their biosecurity plan and will collect samples for testing for roundworm and whipworm. Results will be sent to the owner with information about treatment and how to manage worms.

These worms can cause illness and weight loss in pigs.

Pigs are usually infected through other pigs or pig faeces such as off a dirty truck or livestock transport. Dirty gear, such as feeders from other pig properties, can also be a source of infection.

The testing across the state will help Agriculture Victoria gather data about the extent of roundworm and whipworm in Victoria’s pig herds.

To obtain help with developing a biosecurity plan and take part in the free testing contact Di Phillips at pig.biosecurity@agriculture.vic.gov.au

This project has been co-funded by the Swine Compensation fund until June 2024.

What happens at the visit?

A member of our animal health and welfare team will be in touch to arrange a convenient time to visit.  The visit will include taking pig faecal samples for worm testing and taking you through the Pig Biosecurity Plan Template.  The visit may take a couple of hours.  The templates are available on the Animal Health Australia’s Farm Biosecurity website.

The samples will be sent to a laboratory for testing.  You will be provided with the results and some information about how to manage worms.

For more information about developing a biosecurity plan visit Biosecurity plans.