Armstrong takes over at PVS

- Published: 13 June, 2008

Derek Armstrong has been appointed president of the Pig Veterinary Society.

Armstrong, 48, who took over from Jill Thomson, at the Spring meeting of the PVS, in Edinburgh recently, is currently the BPEX advisor on veterinary matters.

He thanked outgoing President Jill Thomson for all her hard work in a difficult year for the industry, marked by foot-and-mouth disease and soaring feed costs. "It is good to see that her call for a new initiative, focused on eradicating common production diseases is now being seriously taken up by the industry. This initiative will continue to be a key priority for PVS in the coming year."

Armstrong said he has taken Paul Arden's advice as the theme for his year in office - "It's not about how good you are, it's about how good you want to be."

"The pig industry is in crisis and PVS members have a key role to play in turning things around. Vets are trusted advisors at farm level and better health to improve performance is vital part in reducing costs of production. Farm assurance has shown us how good we are in looking after pigs but vets must help farmers realise the opportunities to improve pig health and performance."

"Welfare remains important to consumers and the retail sector needs to recognise this by rewarding producers.

"The BPEX analysis of foreign imports clearly shows that there simply isn't enough pigmeat produced to UK specifications in other countries to meet the volume that is imported here."

PVS believes consumers who obviously value the high standards of care for British pigs would welcome a clear "Welfare-of-origin-labelling" system.