The Director of Swine Health with Manitoba Pork says infrastructure changes have resulted in dramatic biosecurity improvements in Manitoba swine barns.
Jenelle Hamblin, the Director of Swine Health with Manitoba Pork, says a number of disease challenges in Manitoba in the past decade have given us the opportunity to test different biosecurity measures, improve infrastructure and determine what works.
I think the principle of the changes in infrastructure have been framed in a way to make the outcome easier to achieve. So, with biosecurity in the entry and entry protocol, you have a Danish entry system of which showering in, showering out is an option. We’ve seen in Manitoba, particularly many of the farms being either retrofitted or anything that’s being newly built, regardless of operation type, so whether it be a sow barn, nursery barn, finisher barn, they have a shower in, shower out option. This is not something that has been easily achieved, I would say. It’s been very much a process. But recognizing that that entry point into the barn is a critical control point that we need to make sure we are practicing biosecurity in as good of a way as we can.
We’ve also seen increases in the use of physical barriers, so that reminder of what needs to happen or something needs to be done that this part of the barn and this part of the barn are not supposed to interact, let’s say, for example. A good example of that is the deadstock space, so making sure that you have a clear line of separation. The loadout is another really great example, where the loadout room or area has direct contact with the outdoors. When that loadout door is open, what can we do to seal that off or close that off from the rest of the barn? So, making those changes in that infrastructure on the farm has helped to enhance the biosecurity, but also make it easier for those that are performing the tasks to do it well.
~ Jenelle Hamblin, Manitoba Pork
Hamblin acknowledges things can change on a dime but we’ve had very good success with the implementation of the Manitoba PED elimination plan and it’s been wonderful to see the reduction in disease pressure in the province.
