Call for Research Proposals Targets Wean to Harvest Biosecurity

By Harry Siemens

Dr. Megan Niederwerder, associate director of the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) based in Ames, Iowa said improved biosecurity during the weanto-harvest phase of pork production would lower the risk of pathogen introduction for all production phases.

SHIC, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and the Pork Checkoff in the US are calling for research proposals to investigate cost-effective, innovative technologies, protocols and ideas to improve biosecurity and make it easier to implement during the weanto-harvest phase.

The goal is to develop costeffective ways to improve biosecurity on farms and during transport from when the pigs enter the nursery to when they reach the packing plant.

“Several of SHIC’s data monitoring systems and the rapid response program show a gap and vulnerability in the wean-to-harvest biosecurity phase of pork production associated with increased infection rates of endemic diseases such as PRRS and PEDV in the wean-to-harvest phase,” said Dr. Niederwerder.

That gap was also associated with the recent outbreak of actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae in a relatively small geographic area and association with lateral transmission from one finishing site to the next.

Dr. Niederwerder described the wean-to-harvest period as any pork production phase past the sow’s weaning. She explained it’s about 21 days of age when the pig reaches market weight and goes to the slaughter plant. Producers often place post-weaning pigs in a nursery and then in a grow-finish facility and then in the packing plant. Comparing the biosecurity between the wean-to-harvest phase and that of the sow or breeding farm or gilt replacement sites shows lower biosecurity standards in the wean-to-harvest phase.

“This has increased the vulnerability of the entire industry because the increase in infection rates in those older pigs from wean to harvest increases the disease pressure for the entire industry,” she said.

She said the PRRS and PEDV often occur in the wean-to-harvest phase and are followed by outbreaks in the sow or breeding farms one to two months later. Filling that gap in biosecurity in the wean-to-harvest phase will improve the health of the pigs in the country throughout all phases of production.

Dr. Niederwerder said the proposals must focus on site biosecurity and transport biosecurity. On-site biosecurity calls for new ways to think about biosecurity alternatives outside of the box away from traditional biosecurity measures. The research will look at alternatives that increase the ease of daily biosecurity for animal caretakers on site and make it easier to implement transport biosecurity.

The large umbrella of site biosecurity includes personnel, biocontainment and bio-exclusion considering alternative shower and shower-out procedures, or looking at alternatives to biosecurity protocols, thinking about compliance incentives or adoption barriers.

“So how do we increase the likelihood that on-site personnel will consistently follow through with biosecurity protocols?” asked Dr. Niederwerder. “Or how do we identify why they are not adopting these biosecurity protocols and how to overcome the inconsistencies?”

She said to help overcome those issues and to help with labour shortages they want to make biosecurity as easy as possible to implement daily.

In addition to personnel biosecurity, the proposals should include facility biocontainment and bio-exclusion by looking at novel ways to prevent pathogens from entering through aerosol and exiting via the air.

“When we think primarily about filtration in barns, we’re thinking about reducing the pathogens from entering the air, but we also have to think about biocontainment,” she said. “How do we prevent pathogens from leaving the farm through the air to protect the surrounding sites and surrounding regions?”

In the area of transport biosecurity, SHIC is looking for proposals on the truck driver’s biosecurity to help identify the truck driver’s high-risk movements and activities and also how to clean the truck’s cab or the cubbies of the trailer.

Dr. Niederwerder said the proposals are due on December 16, as outlined on their website swinehealth.org.