Contact: Anne Hémonic, Anne.Hemonic@ifip@asso.fr
IFIP is the French Pork and Pig Institute which is involved in applied research and field experiments to serve the needs of the staff of the whole French pig-meat chain. IFIP aims to serve economic actors, bringing our experience, expertise and knowledge, leading networks of partners, and providing information on the international market. IFIP produces technical and economic standards to help the decision-making process at breeder’s level as well as at other links in the pig chain: farmers’ organizations, feed manufacturers, but also slaughter and meat processing sectors. IFIP meets the needs of business and public authorities in order to:
- increase competitiveness by driving progress and innovation;
- promoting sustainable development across the pork sector through research into the best strategy platforms;
- deliver to consumers a diverse range of honest, healthy, top-quality pork products by ensuring that quality guarantees and product offers are geared to market demand.
IFIP is involved at a large scale in key topics for pig production; of which some, at farm level, include:
- Defining prevention measures to safeguard and manage the health—hygiene status of pig farms and meet the strategic challenges tied to pig health and/or food safety.
- Promoting measures to reduce antimicrobial usage: implementation of an observatory network on antibiotic use in pigs (recording farm cases, practices, results…); dissemination and awareness raising events; training of field stakeholders, farmers and veterinarians.
- Optimizing the diet management strategies that decisively shape cost prices but also environmental impacts (animal nutrition requirements, feed strategy modelling, optimization of feed efficiency …).
- Integrating multiple technical specifications in facility design with respect to various fields such as health, climate control and energy challenge, waste management, welfare, and labour.
- Secure opportunities and consolidate the role of pig farms in the bioenergy activity sector.
IFIP is a non-profit research organization, with a budget of 10 million euros, funded by tax on turnover of farms, pork industry by check-off, government missions, calls for projects (F and EU), and private studies.
Dr Anne Hemonic (DVM; female) is a veterinarian, senior scientist and project leader at IFIP on issues related to pig health, biosecurity, hygiene and antimicrobial usage in pig farms. She has written, coordinated and implemented the Good Hygiene Practices Guide in pig farms, officially recognised by the French Authorities in 2012. Since 2010, she monitors antimicrobial use and therapeutic strategies in French pig farms, by implementing two tools (Inaporc Panel and GVET). In IFIP’s experimental farm, Anne has opportunities to perform clinical or pharmacological studies, for example to prevent pain at castration. She writes papers for scientific journals, congresses and symposia, and regularly trains veterinarians on health topics. She was previously a swine veterinarian practitioner.