Iowa State University Study Examines Economics of Swine Transport Vehicle Decontamination

Research conducted by Iowa State University looks at the economics of swine transport vehicle decontamination. The Swine Health Information Center has released the final report on a study, conducted through the Swine Health Information Center Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program, funded in partnership with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff which examined the economic and epidemiologic benefits of market haul trailer sanitation.

Conducted by Iowa State University, the study looked at how different levels of swine transport trailer washing impact the spread of PED.
SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says when you increase the decontamination rate, you can significantly reduce PED spread but, when you factor in the costs, it gets to be very costly very quickly.

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

Transportation is something that affects all sectors of our industry.All animals have to move at at least one time in their lives and we do have a lack of resources to some degree both in truck washing facilities as well as trucks themselves and so it really is important to understand, what are the true risks that are faced in production systems and how do we come up with different ways to be able to mitigate those risks.

This modeling really does show the impact of network connectivity between sites, between systems and even in different geographic regions.So, while it does look at different scenarios, this information can help both production managers, transportation managers and their veterinarians assess what are the risks in their particular area and then try to understand that it may not be necessary to wash 100 percent of vehicles all of the time and still be able to take advantage of reduction in disease risk.

It does highlight that this is relatively farm and site specific and so each farm should assess their risk and act accordingly and still come out with an effective and cost-efficient way to be able to assess truck and trailer washing on a risk basis.

Dr. Becton says the study confirms that high prevalence sites are the ones that need to be focused on.
This study can be accessed at swinehealth.org.