Pig farmers can use audit indices for risk assessment
Farms keeping pigs can use the audit indices for biosafety (BSI) and animal husbandry (THI) provided by QS to demonstrate their diligence and risk prevention to the veterinary authorities. The EU Control Regulation 2017/625, which has been in force since December 14, 2019, stipulates that veterinary authorities should use all information presented to them for the risk assessment of companies. The audit indices for biosafety and animal husbandry result from eight or ten test criteria of the last QS audit. Data and information from the QS monitoring programs for salmonella, antibiotics and slaughter results can also be submitted for inspection. First of all, however, they enable the livestock farmers to determine the position of their own farm in comparison to other farms and give indications of potential for improvement.
Access to data only after approval
From January 2020, the audit indices on biosafety and animal husbandry or results from the QS monitoring programs can be made available to the responsible veterinary authorities. The prerequisite for this is the express written consent of the respective animal owner to his veterinary office and the registration of the veterinary office in the QS database. Veterinary offices can only be activated after the farmer has given his consent and there has been a written agreement with QS on data protection and data use. QS Managing Director Dr. Hermann Josef Nienhoff:The audit indices for biosafety and animal husbandry are a service for the QS scheme partners to determine their own position. In addition, they give pig farms the opportunity to submit a risk assessment to the veterinary authorities. What is decisive, however, is that the system participant himself decides whether and which data he releases for inspection by the authorities.
