Keynote Speaker

Bruce Welch (NZ)

Bruce qualified in 1991 in Zimbabwe and achieved his MRCVS by examination in the UK the following year. After four years in general practice Bruce took up pig vetting.

During his career Bruce has designed, built, and managed a large multi-site pig farm and has also worked as a consulting pig vet in various capacities in various countries.

Bruce’s work in Zimbabwe, Australia, and New Zealand have mainly been as a pig veterinary consultant and he has professionally supported several pig genetics companies in health assurance, genetic improvement, and disease reduction strategies. Bruce has worked in the NZ pork industry since 2000 and has immersed himself in all aspects of pig health and production in support of the local industry.

He has been self-employed since 2006 and currently consults to over half of the commercial pig farms in New Zealand.

Bruce's sessions are detailed below: 

• The Establishment of a Hysterectomy-derived high health breeding herd and downstream herds in New Zealand
•  Wednesday, 15 October 2025
• 1:20pm-2:20pm

This talk will be about the challenges, successes and failures encountered in establishing a high health nucleus breeding operation - the methods, challenges, and subsequent performance changes in herds after the health upgrade and which diseases are believed to be absent from the herds.

• The Atypical Presentation of Glaesserella parasuis, Porcine Cytomegalovirus, Pasteurella multocida and other agents in a naïve high health breeding operation in New Zealand.
• Thursday, 16 October 2025
• 8:30am - 9:30am

The presenter’s experiences will highlight how these diseases behaved in a very different way in a naïve pig herd to how they typically present in herds with partial immunity. Discussion on the pros and cons of such high health herds will be included.