ASF Survey to Target Small Scale Pork Producers

In an effort to help reduce the risk of African Swine Fever entering Canada, the Prairie Swine Centre is reaching out to small scale swine producers to assess and improve their understanding of on farm biosecurity and disease risk mitigation. As part of a Swine Innovation Pork webinar earlier this month on African Swine Fever preparedness in Canada, participants were updated on a "Backyard Pig Farmer Survey" being coordinated by the Prairie Swine Centre.

 

Dr. Murray Pettit, the CEO of the Prairie Swine Centre, says the goal is to better position the pork sector to communicate with the small scale producers about ASF and the threat it poses to the commercial pork industry.

 

 

The overall objective of this study is to improve the understanding of the knowledge that small scale producers have about appropriate swine biosecurity practices and their implications four disease prevention in the Canadian commercial industry. Within that there are two specific objectives we have.

 

One is to collect information from these producers. What do they know about ASF, what do they know about biosecurity, what do they know about the risks of the commercial swine industry but also equally important is what motivates them? Why do they have pigs, what drive their decisions? It's probably a safe assumption that, in a lot cases, these motivators will be different than the commercial industry and we need to take that into account in designing effective messaging.

 

The second objective is to develop this messaging and really ensure that the small scale producers understand the critical importance of effective biosecurity, what's at risk to the commercial industry and what's at risk to themselves to because if ASF starts running through Canada, their animals are at risk too.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.