Most producers are aware of their obligations to complete National Vendor Declarations (NVDs) when moving pigs from farms to sale yards and abattoirs, using either electronically using Australian Pork Limited’s (APL) PigPass or ordering books by phoning into the PigPass dedicated phone service.
There are several reasons for this but the most important is to ensure that pigs can be traced in the event of a disease outbreak. When sale yards and abattoirs receive the NVD, this information is uploaded to the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) database, i.e. those businesses upload the movement information directly to NLIS. This allows jurisdictions to trace animals (cattle, sheep, pigs and goats) reliably and in a timely manner if a disease outbreak occurs, in an effort to contain the outbreak. Think how the PEDv in the USA has spread rapidly and affected large numbers of pigs across that country. Inadequate reporting and biosecurity failures lie at the heart of this rapid spread. [Read more…]