Scottish Pig Health Network
A pig health monitoring and information system for Scotland’s commercial pig sector.
What is SPHN?
SPHN is a pig health monitoring scheme delivered through Scottish Pigs – the farmer-owned cooperative known as Wholesome Pigs (Scotland) until 2025 – in partnership with SRUC, Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), veterinary experts and processing facilities.
The network monitors, protects and improves the health and welfare of the national pig herd, mainly, but not exclusively, through an abattoir monitoring scheme running in Scotland since 2003. The scheme was designed to support evidence-based disease control and management by giving participating producers regular feedback on the health status of their herds.
It has collected health and welfare information from pigs at slaughter, building valuable long-term datasets that have enabled benchmarking, disease monitoring and the identification of emerging health challenges within the Scottish pig industry.
SPHN has been developed jointly by SRUC and Wholesome Pigs (Scotland)/Scottish Pigs and is currently hosted by SRUC’s Centre for Epidemiology & Planetary Health. See How SPHN developed.
What SPHN offers
Abattoir health monitoring
Through the Scottish Pigs & QMS quarterly abattoir health monitoring, carcases are routinely inspected at Scottish processing plants for conditions such as pleurisy, pneumonia, milk spot liver and skin lesions. Vets assess the health data regularly, giving producers detailed feedback on sub-clinical health issues that may not be obvious on the farm.
Disease surveillance and control
The network supports targeted disease control strategies across Scotland, tackling widespread endemic conditions such as PRRS and swine dysentery, while raising biosecurity awareness against threats such as African Swine Fever.
Benchmarking and practical insights
Participating producers receive detailed health reports that let them benchmark herd performance against national averages. This helps farmers and their vets refine herd health plans, tailor vaccination programmes and support responsible use of antimicrobials.
Online tools
SPHN includes a range of online tools, designed and curated by SRUC:
- LesionGraphica – visualises the quarterly results of the abattoir health monitoring.
- ViewQVRs – visualises Quarterly Veterinary Reports (QVRs) submitted across the industry. You may have seen these as static reports from your herd vet; the platform brings historical reports together so you can follow herd health trends, treatment outcomes and veterinary recommendations over time. It was developed through the Pig Insights project.
- Biosecurity Scores – shows your unit’s internal and external Biocheck.UGent biosecurity scores, benchmarked against other Scottish farms.
- PRRS map – shows local PRRS status and farm density, helping producers and vets co-ordinate area-wide control within PCES.
Access to these tools is password-protected and restricted to producers who have signed the Scottish Pig Health Charter, and their nominated herd vets.
PRRS map
The PRRS map will be launched ahead of the Regional Strategy Group meetings. It was developed by SRUC’s Centre for Epidemiology & Planetary Health as part of the PRRS Control & Elimination Scotland (PCES) programme, and brings together data from:
- SRUC laboratory test results
- Biocheck.UGent biosecurity audits
- QMS Assurance quarterly veterinary reports, via ScotEID
Producers and their vets can use it to:
- see where PRRS is present across Scotland
- understand the disease risk around their own unit
- assess the risk of new or neighbouring sites
- plan local PRRS control through the Regional Strategy Groups
The map is only as good as the data behind it, so please keep testing at least once a year.
How SPHN developed
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2003
Abattoir health monitoring
Wholesome Pigs (Scotland) Ltd (renamed Scottish Pigs in 2025) set up the UK’s first slaughter disease surveillance scheme, with quarterly health reports for every herd sent to each producer and their vet. More about us →
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2016 – 2019
Joining up the data: the EIP project
The project Innovative Use of Emerging Technologies to Improve Pig Production Efficiency laid the foundations for SPHN. It was funded by the Scottish Government’s Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund (KTIF) as a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) operational group. The group was led by Wholesome Pigs (Scotland), with SRUC’s Epidemiology Research Unit, Scottish Pig Producers, the British Veterinary Association (Scottish Branch) and Quality Meat Scotland.
The project brought together pig health and performance data from separate, previously unconnected sources. It used methods developed in the Scottish Government’s RESAS Strategic Research Programme to join the datasets, analysed them in new ways, and fed the results back to farmers and vets through new data visualisations.
Benchmarking health and production across the Scottish industry helped producers and their vets to act on the findings, and led to significant reductions in several production-limiting diseases. The disease mapping developed through this work was then put to practical use in the Moray Coast PRRS pilot.
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2024 – now
SPHN today
SRUC’s Centre for Epidemiology & Planetary Health and Scottish Pigs have developed SPHN together. It brings abattoir health monitoring, Biocheck biosecurity scores, laboratory results and quarterly vet reports into one system. As part of PRRS Control & Elimination Scotland, it now adds PRRS mapping, giving producers and their vets a shared view of disease risk in their area.
The Scottish Pig Health Charter
The Scottish Pig Health Charter is the way Scottish pig producers give their approval for information about disease on their unit to be shared with relevant veterinary and farmer colleagues. Sharing that information quickly is what allows the industry to respond fast and stop disease spreading.
By signing the Charter, producers commit to working together to protect the health of pigs in their region and nationally, by raising awareness of new and existing diseases, reporting outbreaks quickly, and working together to control their spread.
What signing the Charter means
- Get advice quickly: you agree to seek rapid veterinary advice, including diagnostic testing, if you suspect any of the diseases listed below.
- Your vet tells SPDCC: you authorise your vet, or any vet in your named practice, to notify the Scottish Pig Disease Control Centre (SPDCC) of cases without undue delay, and to share the key information about the outbreak.
- Limit the spread: you agree to take reasonable precautions, agreed with SPDCC, to reduce the risk of spread.
- Keep it confidential: you agree not to pass information you receive through the Charter to anyone who is not a Charter member.
Diseases covered
- Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea (PED) – suspected outbreaks
- Swine dysentery (Brachyspira hyodysenteriae)
- PRRS
- Enzootic pneumonia (Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae)
- Pleuropneumonia (Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, APP)
- Progressive atrophic rhinitis (toxigenic Pasteurella multocida)
- Streptococcal meningitis (Streptococcus suis serotype 2)
- Sarcoptic mange (Sarcoptes scabiei var suis)
- Any other pig disease likely to reduce optimal growth rates
What is shared, and with whom
What: your unit’s location postcode, its positive or suspect disease status, and pig movements over the relevant period.
With whom: other Charter members, Scottish Pigs (which operates SPDCC) and those taking part in or using SPDCC’s services.
Why: to co-ordinate a rapid industry response to a suspected outbreak.
SPDCC may also use the data for analysis and research, but it will not be shared with anyone outside the Charter membership unless the law requires it or it is needed to respond to disease. A list of all Charter members is available to members.
Improving herd health reduces production costs and has a positive effect on welfare.
Sign up
Download the Charter, read the terms, then sign and return it to andy@scottishpigs.org.uk.
How to access SPHN
If you already have a username, simply log in to the SPHN system on the SRUC website.
Log-ins will be issued ahead of the Regional Strategy Group meetings. Opens pighealth.sruc.ac.uk in a new tab.
Request access
SPHN is for Scottish pig producers who have signed the Scottish Pig Health Charter, and their nominated herd vets. Each producer gets their own username and password from SRUC, and nominates the vet(s) who can also see their information. To request access:
Email andy@scottishpigs.org.uk with:
- Your name
- Your business or practice name
- Your holding (CPH) number, if you are a producer
- Your PCES number (if known)
- Your role (producer or vet)
- Producers: the name and practice of your herd vet
- Whether you have signed the Scottish Pig Health Charter (if not, we will send it to you)
- A phone number we can contact you on
We will check your details and direct you to SRUC to register for your username and password.