Dr. Terry Fonstad, the Associate Dean of Research with the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Engineering, said the application of heat to disinfect swine transport trailers is one of the most significant and widely adopted biosecurity advances for reducing the transmission of disease during transport. 
Researchers with the University of Saskatchewan, the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute and the Prairie Swine Center are working in partnership with Swine Innovation Porc to automate the cleaning and disinfection of swine transport trailers. 
Dr. Fonstad said work conducted by VIDO, which determined heating trailers to at least 75 degrees for 15 minutes will kill swine pathogens, has dramatically improved transport biosecurity. So much was a surprise to the researchers and incidental to the project. 
The project started trying to figure out how to reduce the cost of washing trailers but figuring out how clean is clean — well pathogen-free is clean. Folks down in Iowa had pointed toward this heating thing. 
“We were able to verify it with VIDO-InterVac and their capabilities. But the biggest thing it got adopted across Canada. We didn’t know how beneficial it would be, and the trailer wash facilities jumped on board, any with modified dryers.” 
Other facilities have invested in heating units and probably increased the security on these trailers, impossible to do with chemicals and other things. Yet, doing a good job white-glove cleaning, using chemicals but too many nooks and crannies that could accommodate a pathogen. 
“This heating thing, I think, probably is the biggest benefit to the livestock sector and opportunities in other sectors.” 
Dr. Fonstad said the adoption of heat disinfection by the swine sector was almost immediate. 
To go along with this, the development of the sensors used to track the conditions within swine transport vehicles that affect biosecurity and animal welfare is also progressing. 
As part of a Swine Innovation Porc project, scientists work to automate the washing and disinfection of swine transport trailers. In addition, the University of Saskatchewan oversees the durability testing of the sensors used to track such factors as temperature and humidity within the trailer, vibration and other biosecurity, and animal welfare parameters. 
Dr. Fonstad said these sensors, developed by Transport Genie out of Guelph, Ontario, need to be exceptionally resilient because the sensor manufacturers aren’t always aware of how destructive a pig can be. And putting a sensor down low in a trailer along a wall needs total protection, especially when pigs get bored they start eating away at it, and so they’ve got to be pretty durable. 
The sensors need to take pressure washing, chemicals, vibrations of going over railway tracks and going down a bumpy road and crossing wooden and earthen bridges and the like.  
This sensor needs to measure surface temperature, maybe down low on a wall, and measure the temperature and humidity, which might be the worst in the headspace above the animals. 
It’s entirely possible but the sensors must work in a transport trailer that’s vibrating down the road and temperatures running from minus 40 outside if it’s an empty trailer and over 100 degrees Celsius in a baking system. Then the sensors can’t cost a lot. 
“We’re on generation five and the latest generation has some good promise, and there’s probably going to be continuous development on it.” 
The same common problem in automated mining and automated agriculture is sensing, communications, analytics, and controls. 
In addition to being durable, sensors have to transmit where they are in the trailer, and the data has to go to where it’s protected and accessed by the people who need it. •
— By Harry Siemens