Species: Pigs
Country: Spain
General
The first version of the BIOSEGPOR biosecurity survey was developed by veterinary consultants of the pig sector in 2014. Then the Database, the surveys and the weighting/scoring have been improved in 2021, and is managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAPA) and the Official Veterinary Services (OVS) of the autonomous communities in Spain.
The general goal of the survey is to improve the biosecurity on the pig farms to prevent the introduction of pathogens and to reduce the spread in case the pathogen is introduced. Three different surveys are available. A general one focusing on the overall biosecurity and two disease specific surveys focusing on Trichinella risk assessment and biosecurity measures specific for Aujeszky disease, respectively. The general survey is the most used survey and is also the only one that is compulsory to complete. Furthermore, there are specific surveys for intensive farms, including the biosecurity requirements stated in the legislation (Royal Decree 306/2020), and for extensive farms.
Between 2016 and 2018 almost all intensive, and to a bit lower degree the extensive, pig farms in Spain completed the survey a first time. After this first round, there have been two more rounds, one in 2019-2020 and the most recent one expected to finish on 31st December 2023, these two rounds were focused on particular groups of farms selected based on risk criteria (not surveyed before, low biosecurity in previous surveys, high pig dense areas, farms receiving animals from other countries, etc.). Official veterinary services can access and use the survey and the Database for the surveys carried out in its own region, MAPA has national access to the information of surveys carried out in the 17 regions.
Data collection
Completing the general BIOSEGPOR survey is mandatory for those farms selected based on the selection criteria described above. Mostly it is completed by official veterinary services, though this is decided by the Regional OVS, and in some cases private veterinarians are involved. The survey is completed by conducting a farm visit with direct inspection of the production units and the person interviewed is preferably someone that knows the farms very well such as the farm manager, owner, worker, or veterinarian. BIOSEGPOR can be used online and via a mobile application to collect the data.
Data analysis, reporting and benchmarking
The data are analysed by a scoring method based on weighting biosecurity measures or a group of measures. According to the score achieved, farms are classified into different groups based on their biosecurity level, from very high to very low. For the aspects that are legally compulsory or those considered critical, the farmer is given a correction deadline by the OVS to correct the non-compliance. Benchmarking of the farms is done at national aggregated level and at regional aggregated level in case it is needed.
