ATP Bioluminescence Technology Identified as Effective Tool for Assessing Farrowing Room Cleanliness

A study conducted by Carthage Innovative Swine Solutions has shown ATP bioluminescence technology can be an effective monitoring tool for ensuring the cleanliness of swine farrowing rooms.Visual inspection, commonly used to assess farrowing room cleanliness after cleaning and disinfection, is often insufficient to confirm the absence of pathogens.

Carthage Innovative Swine Solutions, with funding from the Swine Health Information Center, has evaluated the effectiveness of ATP luminometers for assessing farrowing room cleanliness.SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says researchers set out to assess the accuracy of the luminometers in detecting bacterial contamination and to identify areas of the barn of greatest concern.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:

The looked at the comparison of the bioluminometer compared to a bacterial plate count and this was done after the rooms went through the standard cleaning and disinfection process.They wanted to determine the correlation between those tools and can that be utilized as an objective way to monitor sanitation.
They also wanted to look at what are the areas of concern and how many samples do they need to take to get a confidence that the tools are identifying what they need them to do.

The luminometers and the plate count did actually correlate and showed that they can be utilized as an objective method to detect contamination.Through the study they did detect several areas of greatest concern.The entry floor into farrowing is one that was a very contaminated area and that makes logical sense because people are constantly going in and out doing various tasks.

But other areas included the sow feeders and the sort bars because those are also areas that seem to carry an increased level of contamination compared to the other sections like the floormats, walls or corners.

Dr. Becton says the study identifies the most challenging areas and where to focus when cleaning and disinfecting barns.Full details on this assessment can be accessed through SHIC's August eNewsletter found at swinehealth.org.