How do pig veterinarians view technology-assisted data utilization for pig health and welfare management? A qualitative study in Spain, the Netherlands, and Ireland

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

Xiao Zhou, Beatriz Garcia-Morante, Alison Burrell, Carla Correia-Gomes, Lucía Dieste-Pérez, Karlijn Eenink, Joaquim Segalés, Marina Sibila, Michael Siegrist, Tijs Tobias, Carles Vilalta, and Angela Bearth examine swine veterinarians’ current technology practices and needs in this week’s Science Page.

Key points:

• Data-driven strategies have potential benefits for managing farm pig health and welfare.
• Veterinarians’ data needs are not fully met by current technologies.
• A gap in technology usage exists between independent veterinarians and company-employed veterinarians.

Improved collaboration is needed to foster trust and data sharing between veterinarians, farmers, and related professionals.

Introduction
Technology-assisted data utilization could enhance veterinarians’ ability to prevent and control farm pig diseases. This study explored veterinarians’ perspectives on technology and data needs for managing pig health and welfare in Spain, the Netherlands, and Ireland.

Methods
Researchers conducted focus groups with veterinarians in each country, using semi-structured interviews in face-to-face or online settings. Discussions were recorded, transcribed, and translated into English for thematic analysis using Nvivo software.

Results
Six main themes emerged, highlighting veterinarians’ current practices and needs for data utilization together with the application of technologies. Key themes included:

1. Varying levels of technology use – Veterinarians use technology to different extents, with some relying more heavily on data tools than others.
2. Role of technology in pig health and welfare management – Technology is recognized as beneficial for managing pig health and welfare, but its application is inconsistent.
3. Gap between data and data utilization – Despite abundant data, there is a gap in effectively utilizing this information to support veterinarians’ decision-making.
4. Data requirements – Veterinarians identified a need for specific types of data: longitudinal, timely, reliable, standardized, and contextual data.
5. User experience – Veterinarians stressed the importance of data tools being user-friendly, adaptable, integrated, and allowing easy access to pig information.
6. Information output – Effective data tools should enable health monitoring, facilitate information sharing, provide intuitive decision support, and deliver early warnings for disease prevention and control.

Veterinarians expressed a desire for data tools to be integrated, reliable, and easy to access. Both independent practitioners and company-employed veterinarians valued shared reporting systems and real-time monitoring to support health management and early disease detection.

Conclusions and Implications
The study identifies a gap in technology usage for effective pig health management, particularly in data access and usability. It suggests that developing customized data tools could enhance veterinarians’ decision-making and streamline health management. Collaboration across the pig farming industry will be essential to meet data-sharing needs and to ensure tools are tailored to various roles.

For further reading, see the full paper:
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40813-024-00389-3