To advance the biosecurity of U.S. swine farms, the Swine Health Information Center’s Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program, funded in collaboration with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and the Pork Checkoff, has recently funded two new projects producers need to know about.
The projects include an investigation of alternative methods for transport sanitation led by Erin Kettelkamp, DVM, at the Swine Vet Center, and an assessment of the cost of disease in grow-finish production sites led by Karyn Havas at Pipestone Research.
"Novel tools, technologies and approaches are needed to augment current biosecurity practices in the U.S. swine industry," SHIC noted in its monthly newsletter. "Each of the two newly funded projects investigate new ways of thinking about wean-to-harvest biosecurity."
Kettlekamp's project, “Investigating waterless decontamination and application potential in transportation biosecurity,” will investigate the efficacy of a new waterless technology. The technology will be used for the mobile application of heat and hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in trailers and provide an alternative method for achieving necessary transport sanitation.
The project led by Havas, “What is the cost of disease for grow-finish producers?” will investigate the cost of common diseases detected in grow-finish hogs through quantification of disease outcome indicators, such as mortality and weight gain. She will compare costs of disease to costs required for implementation of different biosecurity practices to provide producers an objective understanding of the potential opportunity cost forfeited through poor biosecurity.
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