April 2023 - Strategy FINAL - Flipbook - Page 8
Health
CVO COMMENTS
Important Updates for Producers
Dr. Joel Nerem
Chief Veterinary Officer
Pipestone Veterinary Services
Dr. Joel Nerem joined the PIPESTONE team in July 2006 and comes
with vast swine health experience. Dr. Nerem is currently serving as
Pipestone Veterinary Services Chief Veterinary Officer.
Our vet team is frequently
asked, “What’s new at
PIPESTONE?” This often elicits
a casual response of “Oh, not
much.” But, as I sat down to write
my CVO commentary it occurred
to me that there has been a lot
happening at PIPESTONE that
we’d like to share.
Here is a brief list of updates
and how they might affect you as
a pig farmer:
USDA
APHIS
Visit
Several weeks ago, PIPESTONE
hosted Dr. Jack Shere, Deputy
Administrator for Veterinary
Services at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture. In that role, he
is responsible for the USDA’s
response to a foreign animal
disease. Dr. Shere was
accompanied by 13 other key
USDA individuals focused on
African Swine Fever. We were
pleased to host Dr. Shere and
his team on a sow farm tour, a
feed mill tour, and a visit to a
wean-to-finish site. Many of these
folks do not regularly visit farms
so they greatly appreciated the
opportunity to get out where the
pigs are. We were also fortunate
to be able to convene a meeting
with the USDA group and our
entire swine vet team.
8
PIPESTONE JOURNAL
Weanto-Finish
Biosecurity
Dr. Gordon Spronk addresss the assembly
at AASV.
AASV
The American Association of
Swine Veterinarians recently held
its annual meeting in Aurora, CO.
Pipestone Veterinary Services was
well represented at the meeting
with many of our team presenting
in various sessions. PIPESTONE
speakers included Drs. Karyn
Havas, Taylor Spronk, Adam
Schelkopf, Cameron Schmitt, and
Molly Peterson. The highlight
for PIPESTONE was Dr. Gordon
Spronk’s keynote address where
he challenged swine veterinarians
to lead the U.S. swine industry in
national disease elimination and
keeping ASF out.
Wean-to-market biosecurity
has been identified by many in
the pork industry as needing
significant improvement. The
Swine Health Information Center
recently committed significant
funds to further research in this
area. We at PIPESTONE agree
that our U.S. industry needs
to get better at biosecurity
on growing pig farms. For
this reason, last summer we
launched our PIPESTONE weanto-market biosecurity scorecard
initiative. This scorecard is a tool
for farmers, working with their
PIPESTONE vet, to assess the
biosecurity of their farms. The
tool identifies areas for farm
biosecurity improvement and
allows farmers to benchmark their
level of biosecurity with other
farms. To date, we have about
200 farm assessments completed.
If your farm has not yet
participated in this assessment,
please contact your PIPESTONE
veterinarian.
PIPESTONE launched a wean-to-market
biosecurity scorecard to help producers
asses the biosecturity level of their farms.