Pigs
The pig group developed data-driven tools and models to support improved monitoring, early warning and decision-making in pig health management. Pig health data are often fragmented across different systems, making it difficult for farmers, veterinarians and advisors to detect emerging problems early, compare performance and act on reliable evidence.
Key outputs include the Pig HealthCheck System, which brings together biosecurity, welfare, slaughterhouse and antimicrobial use data and Pig Barometer, an interactive surveillance dashboard. Further outputs include AbattoirInspect, Pig Compass / Griskompassen, Pig Heard Health Check (prototype) and Early Disease Warning model. These tools will benefit pig farmers, veterinarians, farm advisors, laboratories, industry organisations and animal health authorities by supporting more timely, evidence-based decisions for herd health management and disease control.
Tools
Pig Barometer
An interactive surveillance dashboard developed within DECIDE to visualise pathogen-specific laboratory results from pig samples in Spain. It presents information on occurrence, temporal trends and geographical distribution of major endemic swine pathogens. The dashboard allows users to explore spatial and seasonal dynamics, supporting better timing of disease control measures such as vaccination or reinforced biosecurity.
Objective: To support swine disease surveillance and improve disease control decisions through the visualisation of diagnostic laboratory data.
Key features
- Visualises pathogen-specific laboratory results from pigs.
- Covers pathogens including swine influenza virus, PRRSV, PEDV, Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, Lawsonia intracellularis, Brachyspira spp. and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae.
- Shows temporal and geographical trends.
- Includes dashboard filters and comparative visualisations.
- Intended to evolve into a pan-European disease monitoring tool.
Target users: Pig farmers, veterinarians, laboratories, swine health advisors and disease surveillance stakeholders.
Access and resources
- Public tool: https://decide-project-eu.github.io/case-studies-website/case-studies/pig-barometer.html
- Repository (codes): https://github.com/decide-project-eu/LivestockHealthOntologyIntegration-CattlePigPoultryUsecase-
- Tutorials: https://decide-project-eu.github.io/case-studies-website/tutorials/ontologies.html
- Introducing Pig Barometer https://zenodo.org/records/17725946
- Practice abstract: D6.9_Second-set-of-practice-abstracts Practice abstract 13, page 17.
Playlist
0:16
Pig HealthCheck Dashboards
The Pig HealthCheck Dashboards is a mobile-friendly web system developed around the Animal Health Ireland Pig HealthCheck Programme. It brings together biosecurity, animal welfare, slaughterhouse, antimicrobial use and other national programme data in a central database. Farmers can view dashboards with graphs and tables, benchmark performance against national averages, and monitor progress over time. Farmers may also consent to share their dashboards with health advisors.
Objective: To improve farm-level pig health decision-making and support coordinated national-level monitoring.
Key features
- Integrates multiple data sources into one central database.
- Provides dashboards with graphs and tables.
- Allows farmers to benchmark against national averages.
- Tracks progress over time.
- Enables confidential data sharing with health advisors, based on farmer consent.
Target users: Pig farmers, veterinarians and pig health advisors.
Access and resources
- Public tool: https://animalhealthireland.ie/programmes/pig-healthcheck/pig-healthcheck-database/
- Programme page & resources: https://animalhealthireland.ie/programmes/pig-healthcheck/
- Repository (tool info): https://zenodo.org/records/20930081
- Practice abstract: D6.4_First-set-of-practice-abstracts Practice Abstract 3, page 13.
Playlist
0:16
Pig Herd Health Dashboard
The dashboard aims to combine laboratory test results, weather data, antibiotic use, slaughterhouse findings, control strategies and farm visit reports, helping users gain a clearer overview of herd health and performance. By making data easier to collect, analyse and discuss, the tool is intended to support more efficient decision-making, historical benchmarking and better communication between veterinarians and farmers. Stakeholder feedback highlighted the value of having all data visible “at a glance” in one dashboard. The tool is currently under development and is planned to become available in the months following the project completion.
Abbatoir Inspect
An interactive data visualisation and surveillance platform that transforms raw abattoir inspection data into actionable insights for the pig industry. The tool uses slaughterhouse rejections data collected through routine veterinary meat inspections and presents them through intuitive dashboards and automated reports. Users can explore trends in whole carcass and partial condemnations over time, compare farm performance against industry benchmarks and investigate specific rejection categories in greater detail. AbattoirInspect includes advanced analytics and monitoring capabilities. Interactive time-series visualisations help identify long-term trends and seasonal patterns, while a built-in alert system combines Holt-Winters, CUSUM, and EWMA algorithms to detect unusual increases in condemnation rates.
Objective: To improve disease surveillance, benchmarking and decision-making using routine pig slaughterhouse inspection data.
Key features
- Visualises slaughterhouse rejection and condemnation data.
- Provides national-level and farm-specific views.
- Includes time-series, statistics and benchmarking functions.
- Uses alert algorithms including Holt-Winters, CUSUM and EWMA.
- Generates downloadable reports.
Target users: Pig farmers, veterinarians, abattoirs, processors, policymakers and other pig industry stakeholders.
Access and resources
- Public tool: https://epidemiology.sruc.ac.uk/shiny/apps/abattoir_inspect
- Repository: https://zenodo.org/records/20815605
- Practice abstract: see/download a PDF here
Playlist
0:16
Pig Compass / Griskompassen
An interactive pig production and health monitoring dashboard developed within DECIDE by the Swedish Veterinary Agency with the Swedish Farm & Animal Health organisation. The prototype brings separate data sources together to help farmers and advisors monitor production results, weather observations and meat inspection remarks on a weekly basis. It also supports benchmarking against national averages and aims to make early signs of unusual patterns easier to detect.
Objective: To support timely pig herd monitoring and benchmarking by integrating key Swedish pig production and health data sources.
Key features
- Combines production results, weather observations and meat inspection remarks.
- Presents weekly indicators in an interactive dashboard.
- Enables comparison with national averages.
- Uses artificial example datasets in the prototype.
Target users: Pig farmers and advisors in Sweden.
Access and resources
- Public tool: https://wgustafsson-griskompassen.share.connect.posit.cloud/
- Repository (tool information): https://github.com/decide-project-eu/Griskompassen
- Repository (data example): https://zenodo.org/records/20742871
- Practice abstract: see/download a PDF here
Playlist
Early Disease Warning model
A DECIDE output designed to support the development of early-warning approaches for pig health monitoring. The available materials include code, an example input dataset and metadata/readme information, providing a basis for detecting unusual patterns in pig health data and supporting future disease warning applications. See details here on GitHub.
