By Tim Nelson, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer
The fall season brings a return to routines and for some, a return to school learning. This time of year can also be an opportunity for a biosecurity “refresh” to review practices with farm employees and contractors. For example, a review of downtime protocols may be a timely reminder that helps keep pathogens out over the coming winter months.
Dr. Klaus Depner, Senior Scientist in the Institute for International Animal Health says that “Humans are the main cause of long-distance transmission and virus introduction into pig farms”. Referring to African Swine Fever, Dr. Depner says, “It is always human error that results in the virus entering the barn”.
Downtime is an important tool in the biosecurity toolbox that provides added insurance for protecting swine herds, particularly for multi-site production systems.
A study conducted over a four-year period showed that a one-night (24 hour) downtime period was a key factor in preventing the spread of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (which causes pneumonia in pigs) by people, their clothing and footwear.1 Given that pathogens can be transferred from humans to pigs and vice versa, a downtime period of 24 to 48 hours is often required before entering barns housing herds of high health status.2
Downtime is an important tool in the biosecurity toolbox that provides added insurance for protecting swine herds, particularly for multi-site production systems.
Multi-site production systems with separate production stages at each site often have designated employees for each site but also have employees or contractors who move from farm to farm through the week. Separating stages of production minimizes newborn piglets’ exposure to disease pathogens that could affect future growth and performance.3 As a result, personnel have a crucial role in keeping disease pathogens out of barns, and for multi-stage production systems, downtime between sites is a key part of this.
Downtime planning gets very complex for large facilities with multiple barns at different stages of production. Complex spreadsheets that are laborious to keep up to date are often used to calculate downtime required between barns, but are often not updated as frequently as they should be for disease exclusion. Using complicated downtime spreadsheets that require interpretation also makes information sharing with employees and contractors a challenge.
Farm Health Guardian makes downtime planning easy, updating automatically in real-time and eliminating the need for bulky spreadsheets. The threats of ASF and other swine diseases highlight the need for downtime as an important part of a biosecurity strategy, particularly in multi-stage production systems.
To learn more about strengthening biosecurity, visit farmhealthguardian.com.
1. https://www.aasv.org/jshap/issues/v19n6/v19n6p345.pdf
2. https://biocheckgent.com/en/about-biosecurity-pig
3. https://protekta.com/modern-biosecurity-in-the-swine-industry/
