Dr. Megan Niederwerder, the Swine Health Information Center associate director, said improved biosecurity during the wean-to-harvest phase of pork production would lower the risk of pathogen introduction for all production phases.
SHIC, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and the Pork Checkoff are calling for research proposals to investigate cost-effective, innovative technologies, protocols and ideas to improve biosecurity and make it easier to implement during the wean-to-harvest phase.
The goal is to develop cost-effective ways to improve biosecurity on farms and during transport from when the pigs enter the nursery to when they reach the packing plant.
“Several of SHIC’s data monitoring systems and the rapid response program show a gap and vulnerability in the wean-to-harvest biosecurity phase of pork production associated with increased infection rates of endemic diseases such as PRRS and PEDV in the wean-to-harvest phase.”
But it was also associated with the recent outbreak of actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae in a relatively small geographic area and association with lateral transmission from one finishing site to the next.
Dr. Niederwerder described the wean-to-harvest period as any pork production phase past the sow’s weaning. It’s about 21 days of age when the pig reaches market weight and goes to the slaughter plant. Producers often place post-weaning pigs in a nursery and then in a grow-finish facility and then in the packing plant. Comparing the biosecurity between the wean-to-harvest phase and that of the sow or breeding farm or gilt replacement sites shows lower biosecurity standards in the wean-to-harvest phase.
“This has increased the vulnerability of the entire industry because the increase in infection rates in those older pigs from wean to harvest increases the disease pressure for the entire industry.”
She said the PRRS and PEDV often occur in the wean-to-harvest phase and are followed by outbreaks in the sow or breeding farms one to two months later. Filling that gap in biosecurity in the wean-to-harvest phase will improve the health of the pigs in the country throughout all phases of production.
Dr. Niederwerder said the proposals must focus on site biosecurity and transport biosecurity. On-site biosecurity calls for new ways to think about biosecurity alternatives outside of the box away from traditional biosecurity measures. To increase the ease of biosecurity daily for animal caretakers on site and make it easier to implement transport biosecurity.
The large umbrella of site biosecurity includes personnel, biocontainment and bio-exclusion considering alternative shower and shower-out procedures, or looking at alternatives to biosecurity protocols, thinking about compliance incentives or adoption barriers.
“So how do we increase the likelihood that on-site personnel will consistently follow through with biosecurity protocols? Or how do we identify why they are not adopting these biosecurity protocols and how to overcome the inconsistencies?”
She said to help overcome those issues and to help with the labour shortages are by making biosecurity as easy as possible to implement daily.
In addition to personnel biosecurity, the proposals should include facility biocontainment and bio-exclusion. Look at novel ways to prevent pathogens from entering through aerosol and exiting via the air.
“When we think primarily about filtration in barns, we’re thinking about reducing the pathogens from entering the air, but we also have to think about biocontainment. How do we prevent pathogens from leaving the farm through the air to protect the surrounding sites and surrounding regions?”
In transport biosecurity, SHIC is looking for proposals on the truck driver’s biosecurity to help identify the truck driver’s high-risk movements and activities and also clean the truck’s cab or the cubbies of the trailer.
Dr. Niederwerder said the proposals are due on December 16, as outlined on their website swinehealth.org •
— By Harry Siemens
