In a world where we want to feed the growing human population with healthy and sustainable produced food, farm biosecurity is key. It encompasses all measures that are taken to prevent the entry and spread of diseases (and pests) on a farm. Higher levels of on-farm biosecurity will result in improved animal health and welfare, lower mortality, morbidity and less need for medicine such as antibiotics. Biocheck.UGent provides an objective and scientifically validated risk-based scoring tool to measure and evaluate the level of on-farm biosecurity in livestock production. The system is survey-based with separate surveys for cattle, poultry and pig production. The calculation algorithm that takes into account all important risks for introduction and spread of diseases, their frequency of occurrence and interaction, uses the survey’s results to compute a score which is then compared with national and global averages to allow for benchmarking. Separate scores are given for external biosecurity (= the measures taken to prevent disease entry) and internal biosecurity (=the measures taken to prevent disease spread). Furthermore, the system also provides separate scores for several subcategories which represent the most important aspects of the specific type of animal production. These scores can then be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the farm’s biosecurity programme and thus advice where improvements are to be made. On a regional/national level, information on biosecurity levels can help with the control of (re)emerging infectious diseases.

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https://biocheck.ugent.be/en

• Netherlands
• Poland

• Indigenous and nomadic peoples
• Remote and rural communities

The first Biocheck.UGent survey was developed specifically for scientific usage in pig production in 2010. Over the course of the following years, surveys were developed for poultry (broilers and laying hens) and cattle (veal calves, beef cattle and dairy cattle). Initially the tool was mostly used in the framework of national and European research projects at Ghent University and later it was also used by other academic institutions. The Biocheck.UGent tool has been successfully used in multiple scientific studies, some of them can be found here: https://biocheck.ugent.be/en/faq#scientificpublicationsusingbiocheckugent. Simultaneously with the increasing academic interest, Biocheck.UGent has also gained increased interest from the agricultural world. To date, the tool has been used to calculate the biosecurity over 15500 times on farms around the world. It has been used in over 60 different countries with a focus on Europe and South-East Asia and a growing interest in Africa and the Americas. Due to the increased interest in different countries, Biocheck.UGent has been translated and released in several languages.

All the surveys of the Biocheck.UGent system can be tried out immediately (i.e. no registration required) and for free at https://biocheck.ugent.be/en/surveys. It generally takes about 20 minutes to completely fill in a survey. You receive the biosecurity scores almost instantly in PDF-format after filling in the survey. Several advanced features are available for a payment (more information can be found at https://biocheck.ugent.be/en/features#advanced). Users can request a 30 day trial period at the following link: https://biocheck.ugent.be/en/form/request-biocheck-premium-account A YouTube video was recently launched, describing our aims and the Biocheck.UGent tool: https://youtu.be/_LI0nNNOsN0.

Category 4 – Disaster risk management and early warning systems Category 3 – Agriculture innovations systems and sustainable farming 21. E-agriculture Ensure the systematic dissemination of information using ICTs on agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry and food, in order to provide ready access to comprehensive, up-to-date and detailed knowledge and information, particularly in rural areas. Public-private partnerships should seek to maximize the use of ICTs as an instrument to improve production (quantity and quality).