An investigation to be conducted by the Swine Veterinary Center will assess the effectiveness of water free alternatives for cleaning and disinfecting swine transport vehicles

 

“An investigation of alternative methods for transport sanitation” is one of two new research projects approved under the Swine Health Information Center’s Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program, co-funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff.

 

SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the project, led by Dr. Erin Kettelkamp out of the Swine Veterinary Center, will be focussing on novel technologies intended to improve transport biosecurity.

 

 “It’s important to let farmers know what the impact is to see if they could implement something similar into their systems”

 

“It really is looking at a different method to try to have the same type of sanitation we do with a normal wash and disinfection system, except with the absence of water. It looks at a couple of different things.

“It looks at a vacuum removal of organic materials, the use of hydrogen peroxide and the application of heat and it looks at this against PEDv, which is a virus we see a lot.

“It assesses the different combinations of technologies, both as mock and model trailer systems but then also takes this approach to a field application.

“We know many sites don’t always have water available and, if we can find alternatives and speed up the time of completion, that’s very important to know.

“This information is really important to get to producers and veterinarians and even managers of transportation and sanitation companies because, if we can identify alternative systems, it’s important to let people know what they are, what the impact is but also the cost to see if they could also implement something similar into their systems.“

Dr. Becton says the timeframe for the project is relatively short at about nine months to completion.

She says results will be made available through the SHIC website and through various meetings with a goal of ensuring public accessibility to the research results.