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Today, the 8th August, is the anniversary of Classical Swine Fever being found in English Pigs in 2000.
CSF was the second of a series of three British pig epidemics. It arrived into pigs already sick with Circovirus (PMWS – PDNS).
The third, the even more disastrous Foot and Mouth disease, became an epidemic the following February at a huge human, animal and financial cost. It even delayed a general election before being finally overcome.
But Circovirus remains to this very day, needing huge quantities of antibiotics to deal with co-infections. The antibiotics give rise to antibiotic resistant disease: dangerous to livestock, their keepers and public health.
Circovirus is the reason why British pig productivity is 20-25 per cent per sow below the near European continental farmers. It is not bad breeding, inadequate feed, or bad husbandry: it is endemic disease.
Carcase weight (kg) per sow per year
| Great Britain | 1,608 |
| Denmark | 2,075 |
| Netherlands | 2,279 |
| France | 2,109 |
| Germany | 1,993 |
| Ireland | 1,789 |
| EU Ave | 2,000 |
Source: Pig Cost of Production in Selected Countries, 2009
Immediate source of above cost of carcase weight statistics here
