healthmedicinet

“People worry about pigs. Pigs are so compelling, so mysterious, so contradictory
– finicky yet fat, massive yet dainty, stolid yet smart. We can’t decide what we think
of them. We’re uneasy about our role in their life and death. We make images of them
that reveal our complex feelings—our affection, our revulsion, our sentimentality,
and our guilt” 1].

Harry Truman said “No man should be allowed to be president who does not understand
hogs” 2].

“Dogs look up to you, cats look down on you and pigs think you’re their equal” is
attributed to an old rural New England hogophile 3].

George Orwell in his book “Animal Farm” mentions the natural hierarchy that evolves
when animals live together: “the work of teaching and organizing the others naturally
fell to the pigs, who were recognized as being the cleverest of animals”.

In many aspects, the physiology of pigs resembles very closely that of humans, and
pigs often serve as experimental models for surgery, for performing physiological
studies, and also for studying pathogenesis and immunological responses to a variety
of infectious organisms.

It is well known that, for ages and throughout the globe, pigs have intrigued humans
and have even been a close part of their life. For this reason, the relationship between
people and pigs has frequently been pictured by politicians, cartoonists, and writers
1].

It is also clear that the pig, as animal species, has been and still is being studied
intensively from different angles by medical researchers, geneticists, nutritionists,
and other porcine specialists. Intensification and industrialization of pig production
in recent times has been challenging not only for the pig itself but also for those
of us who are directly involved. Every aspect of pig keeping has become highly specialized
and demanding; new diseases emerge, changes occur rapidly and are sometimes hard to
follow. With this rapid evolution, the whole pig, the entire picture of pig raising,
the interdisciplinary features, the interactive elements involved and their effects
are often difficult to follow, and this process may even become more problematic in
the future.

Let us admit, the pig is an amazing animal that has served the human population in
different ways, in good and bad times and throughout history, and still continues
to do so. This animal species thus asks for and deserves a science-based journal that
is concerned with various aspects related to medicine and production in modern pig
raising and that puts the pig centrally on the scene.

Clearly, it is rather difficult nowadays for the pig scientist involved in different
pig-related subjects, for the pig veterinarian in his everyday job and for the pig
manager, to keep up with all the scientific information published in different sources
of the literature.

We are, therefore, proud to launch a new open access journal, entitled Porcine Health Management (PHM) (http://www.porcinehealthmanagement.com). This new journal, which puts the pig in a central position, has been jointly established
by the European College of Porcine Health and Management (http://www.ecphm.org) and the European Association Porcine of Porcine Health Management (http://www.eaphm.org).

PHM intends to treat different topics of swine raising including: infectious and non-infectious
diseases, reproduction, epidemiology, housing, nutrition, medicines, management, economics,
genetics, animal welfare, ethics, legislation, and food safety. It aims to serve as
an international platform for sharing new and original research findings, results
of clinical studies, presentation of new and interesting clinical cases and recent
evolutions. The journal will publish this information as up-to-date research articles,
topical review articles, short communications, reports on interesting cases, as well
as clinical studies commentaries. The foremost goal of this journal is thus to provide
a platform to bridge the knowledge gap between physiological and pathological aspects
of pig raising, to report on new developments and on important production management
features, all within a science-based framework. This approach is unique at present
in the porcine field worldwide.

We are interested in publishing articles of high quality and novelty, but we also
consider research results of more general interest and clinical features to the readers.
We believe that putting the pig at the center of this journal is unique and will serve
both our favored animal species and our professions.

Being open access (http://www.porcinehealthmanagement.com/authors/instructions), all articles published in PHM by BioMed Central 4] are freely and globally accessible online and thus available to readers at no cost.
Articles can thus reach a larger readership than with a subscription-based journal.
Open access also allows rapid publication of reviews, articles and of new clinical
data, with the opportunity to upload videos, photos, and datasets.

We believe that the open access format offers many advantages relative to traditional
publication strategies, as articles will be published online very shortly after editorial
acceptance which, markedly decreasing the time for distribution. All manuscripts will
be independently reviewed by at least 2 experts in the field and by an Editor-in-Chief.
The journal benefits from an editorial board of over 30 highly specialized members
from 16 different countries. It is our aim to deliver a timely and fair peer review
process. Authors of articles published in PHM retain the copyright of their articles
and are free to reproduce and disseminate their work.

Among PHM’s inaugural articles are a review article on tail biting in modern pig production
by Anna Valros and Mari Heinonen 5], a research article on serum haptoglobin dynamics and a commercial porcine circovirus
type 2 vaccine by Lorenzo Fraile and colleagues 6], and a research article comparing lesions found in pigs under organic/free-range
and conventional/indoor production conditions by Lis Alban and colleagues at the Danish
Agriculture Food Council 7].

We hope that you will enjoy the PHM journal and that you will consider it when deciding
where to publish your work.

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