University of Minnesota Examines Technologies to Control Aerosolized Emissions

The Swine Health Information Center is looking at the potential application of technologies being used in other industries to control aerosolized emissions to determine whether they can be used to prevent disease transmission in the pork sector .Results of an extensive review of current and prospective aerosol technologies being used in other industries that could potentially be used to prevent the spread of disease in the pork sector have been published in "Frontiers in Veterinary Science."

Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Paul Sundberg says the review, which was conducted by the University of Minnesota, looked at emerging technologies such as microwave, ionization-based systems and technologies generating reactive oxygen species.

Quote-Dr. Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Center:

The review looked at currently implemented technologies in other industries, those that are scalable and used in industrial and medical settings in other industries and also new emerging technologies that are just starting to be used.We know that, as we get outbreaks of PRRS for example, on finishing floors, a month or two months later it's most likely that other farms, other facilities within that area will be affected by PRRS.

Finishing floors are a nidus of infection that will infect regional or neighbour breeding herds and that certainly happens. We have a lot of data that shows that so it's an issue.

What we're looking for here is a cost-effective way that we can transfer what others have known about aerosol mitigation and stopping the transfer of PRRS for example from one farm to another by aerosol in the pork industry using these types of new technologies that we could borrow from other industries.

Dr. Sunberg says, in response, SHIC has funded two projects to determine whether electrostatic particle removal of viruses from the air can be effective in enhancing biosecurity in the pork sector.