Vehicle movements between swine farms and facilities are among the highest risk for spreading pathogens like PED, PRRS, and emerging threats. Responding rapidly to breaches of transport biosecurity rules is critical to protecting swine facilities from pathogen introduction.
Transport Biosecurity Matters
Research confirms a strong association between frequency of site events – such as deliveries, maintenance, and personnel movement – and infection in both nursery and finishing phases. The link between movement events and outbreaks points to significant gaps in transport biosecurity.
Live-haul trailers are especially high-risk for pathogen spread. This is because they carry live animals which are the highest risk carriers of pathogens. The trailers are often heavily contaminated with manure, skin, hair, fodder and bedding, making them an extremely high risk for pathogen spread if they are not completely cleaned and disinfected between high-risk loads. Critical as they are, cleaning and disinfection steps are often missed or carried out in haste and therefore ineffectively, due to time pressure, which creates a major risk for pathogen transfer.
During transport, pigs are exposed to many of the same disease risks, if not more, as on the farm (people, materials, environment). However, farm biosecurity processes include precautions that aren’t possible or practical to implement on livestock trailers, such as showering, air filters, and downtime and disinfection rooms.
For these reasons, truck and trailer disinfecting and stringent biosecurity measures for drivers are crucial, but they are only part of the solution.
Verifying planned routes
Transport routes and schedules based on farm health status are an important part of many transport biosecurity programs, but all too often there are differences between what’s planned and what actually happens.
“We think we know what’s happening, but we don’t know what’s actually happening. The schedule is one thing, what’s happening is sometimes totally different,” said Dr. Karine Talbot, Senior Director of Animal Health, Nutrition and R&D at Hylife Ltd. in a recent transport biosecurity podcast.
How can we get visibility of what is actually happening compared to planned routes?
Farm Health Guardian (FHG) digital biosecurity software enables vehicle tracking via GPS integration or GPS tail-light devices for vehicles that do not have GPS navigation. The system provides veterinarians and farm managers up to the minute verification of transport biosecurity procedures.
Automatic biosecurity breach alerts
Biosecurity rules for a system can be configured in the Farm Health Guardian software, so if there is a breach, the software sends real-time alerts so your team can respond proactively in the moment. When Farm Health Guardian is integrated into a transport biosecurity program, veterinarians and farm managers can:
- Confirm truck wash visits
- Verify that dedicated trailers are going to the properties or farms they are assigned to
- Check adherence to health pyramid flow or group
- Verify that downtime requirements are met, and more.
“Now all of a sudden we can integrate that data, get it in a more useable platform and be more proactive when it comes to biosecurity and we can see when deviations occur to the rules we have in place,” says Dr. Erin Kettelkamp, Veterinarian at Swine Vet Center.
Improved biosecurity compliance
The ability to visualize actual truck and trailer routes and receive breach alerts as they’re happening leads to greater awareness and improved biosecurity compliance. The data from Farm Health Guardian may prompt a re-evaluation of routing logistics, the implementation of more stringent rules, or simply the ability to intervene immediately when there is a breach.
“If you can measure it, now you have a way to really improve it,” says Dr. Karine Talbot.
For more information, visit our website: www.farmhealthguardian.com
