IMPROVING HERD HEALTH THROUGH USEFUL INFORMATION

This system of continiuos improvement is used in a joined Dutch-German research and development project of GIQS in which the Dutch Animal Health Service (AHS) and the University of Bonn are project partners. For this reason the Dutch-German initiative GIQS (trans-border quality assurence) develops a tool box consisting of six modules to support chain oriented quality- and health management in the pig production chin (1). One out of six tools is the Module Herd Health Management. The aim of this part of the entire project is to make a computer based, web enabled support system for swine farmers, their consultans and veterinarians and the pork production chain manager to gather informationon herd health and give structured advice and background informations to improve herd health. The work being done for one of the three pilot-chains will be used as an example.

van der Wolf, P., Mack, A., Gymnich, S.,Schulze Althoff, G.;B. Petersen (2004):

Improving herd health through useful information Proceedings of the International Society of Animal Hygiene, 11.-13.Oktober 2004, Saint Malo, Frankreich. Vol. 2, p. 479