Swine Health Management: Biosecurity and Epidemiological Strategies for Sustainable Pig Farming
A Special Issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615) belonging to the section "Pigs".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2027 | Viewed by 7
Editor
Interests: swine health management; herd health; biosecurity; infectious diseases; disease epidemiology and surveillance; PRRSV; antimicrobial stewardship; sow health and reproduction; pig welfare; precision livestock farming; transport biosecurity; sustainable pig production
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Pig farming faces increasingly complex health challenges associated with the movement of animals and goods, high farm density, endemic and emerging diseases, antimicrobial resistance, climate-related pressures, and growing expectations for sustainable food production. Effective swine health management is therefore essential for protecting animal health and welfare, maintaining farm productivity, safeguarding public health, and reducing the economic, environmental, and social consequences of disease.
This Special Issue will focus on practical, evidence-based approaches to preventing, detecting, and controlling diseases in pig populations. Its scope includes internal and external biosecurity; epidemiological surveillance; diagnostic and early-warning systems; outbreak investigation; vaccination and disease-control programmes; antimicrobial stewardship; transport-related risks; environmental monitoring; and the use of digital technologies and farm data to support decision-making. Studies assessing the productive, economic, welfare, environmental, and social effects of health interventions are particularly encouraged. Consideration will also be given to the human dimension of disease prevention and control, including risk perception, communication, stakeholder engagement, adoption of biosecurity measures, and the psychological impact of health emergencies on farmers, veterinarians, farm workers, and other actors in the production chain.
A dedicated theme issue is timely because these dimensions are closely interconnected but are often examined separately. Bringing epidemiological, managerial, technological, economic, and social perspectives together will allow individual findings to be interpreted within the wider context of sustainable pig production. By integrating experimental research, field studies, reviews, and case reports, this Special Issue aims to build upon existing disease-control knowledge and promote feasible, coordinated strategies that strengthen the resilience of pig farms, production chains, and the people involved in the swine sector.
Dr. Annalisa Scollo
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- swine health management
- farm biosecurity
- disease prevention and control
- veterinary epidemiology
- disease surveillance
- emerging and endemic diseases
- antimicrobial stewardship
- pig health and welfare
- sustainable pig production
- precision livestock farming
- stakeholder engagement
- farm resilience
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