New research in connection with Hepatitis E has been named as one of key milestones for 2015 for the pigmeat food safety subgroup of the Pig Health and Welfare Council (PHWC).
The council has said it will support the commissioning and delivery of four work streams to reduce the risk of Hepatitis E in slaughter pigs, stating that existing knowledge on the issue is limited and that further research is required.
PHWC’s four work streams will include:
- using trace-back of samples from a 2013 Zoonoses study and the mapping of risk factors,
- an on-farm study to consider the transmission route at farm level and why some pigs are viraemic at slaughter,
- the identification of possible risk factors and interventions, and
- the development of a risk assessment tool, based on an AHDB Pork-sponsored PhD starting in September 2015.
The full milestone details are listed in PHWC’s newly published biennial report.