Enhancing the biosecurity of feed delivery to swine farms

Monday, August 5, 2013

An exercise to identify ways of reducing disease outbreaks involving both producers and feed companies underlines that biosecurity is everyone's responsibility and cannot be left up to one sector of the industry

by CATE DEWEY, KATE BOTTOMS and KAREN RICHARDSON

Biosecurity is everyone's responsibility. Fifteen swine producers and 21 people from eight feed companies were asked to identify management interventions that could decrease the potential biosecurity risk associated with the delivery of feed. While previous research has not linked specific disease outbreaks with feed delivery, diseases such PRRS, TGE, salmonella, ileitis and swine dysentery can be spread by people and vehicles acting as carriers.

The management interventions were categorized according to the level of implementation: company, dispatch, driver and sales, and farm. Participants rated interventions according to disease control, ease of implementation and economic feasibility.

Company-level procedures included: enhancing pest control, providing dedicated feed truck wash bays, restricting visitor movement at the production facility, maintaining information about individual farm biosecurity protocols, and avoiding the return of skids and extra feed.

Dispatch procedures included: sequencing delivery of feed first to high-health/high-biosecurity herds, and to sow herds before finisher herds, and calling the producer 45 minutes before the expected time of delivery to facilitate delivery of bagged feed directly to the producer.

Driver and sales protocols included: regularly washing and disinfecting the truck's floor mats, steering wheel and exterior, delivering feed according to each farm's biosecurity protocol, wearing cleaned and disinfected boots in the yard at each farm, not entering the barn unless absolutely necessary and, when necessary, wearing barn-specific coveralls and boots. Currently, disposable plastic boots are made available to drivers but they are considered dangerous in wet and slippery conditions, particularly during the winter. However, a system of using rubber over-boots that can be cleaned and disinfected has not been established.

Farm management recommendations included: providing a container near the feed bins for the mill order, maintaining a clean laneway free of manure, cleaning the area under the feed bin regularly, providing farm-specific blow pipes, locating feed bins away from exhaust fans, manure pits and compost piles, ensuring dead-stock are properly contained to reduce runoff onto yard and walkways. They are also aimed at reducing the number of feed deliveries where possible, providing clean boots and coveralls for feed company personnel entering the barn or, better still, providing a location for bagged feed and premix delivery other than the barn.  

Bagged feed is one of the highest biosecurity risks, even though it is a small percentage of feed delivered. The likelihood of bringing a new virus into a farm or picking up a virus that could be spread to the next farm increases when the driver carries the bags into the barn.

Leaving bags on the loading chute is also a concern, because the driver is in contact with an area used by pigs and must walk through the manure that was washed off the chute. A better choice is to leave the bags in a shed or garage away from the barn, or unload them onto a truck or skid steer at the end of the lane.

The overall messages from this exercise are that biosecurity has to be everyone's responsibility, it cannot be left up to one sector of the industry. Understanding the science behind the ideas is critical and then educating the key players is paramount for compliance.

Thank you to all the participants for their input, Ontario Pork and Ontario Agri Business Association for their assistance and the Canadian Swine Health board for their financial support. BP

Cate Dewey is Chair of the Department of Population Medicine, Kate Bottoms is a research assistant and Karen Richardson is a technician at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph.