Theo Geudeke

Introduction:In 1998 the Dutch government issued that from 2013 sows must be housed in social groups within 5 days after insemination, in addition to EC directive 2008/120. In 2014, the government issued a project to aid farmers, which had reported, on request, negative effects of group housing in the first 4 weeks on welfare and reproduction (n=347), to overcome these effects. Focus of the projec ...

Introduction:The impact of PED outbreaks in the United States had led to a high level of awareness in the Netherlands. A baseline study in the Netherlands, conducted in the second half of 2014, confirmed the naïve status of the Dutch pig industry for PEDv. After the study was completed the first outbreak of PED occurred in the Netherlands in November 2014. Until April 2015 a total of 51 outbr ...

Introduction:Since 2001 GD Animal Health in the Netherlands runs a monitoring system on pig health. One pillar of this system is the recording of all telephonic questions concerning health issues. Since 2013 lameness turned out to be the main subject of these questions. A detailed telephonic survey in 2014 revealed that most of the questions on lameness concerned finisher pigs between 3 and 5 mont ...