Farmscape for June 22, 2021

The Associate Dean Research with the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Engineering says the application of heat to disinfect swine transport trailers has been one of the most significant and widely adopted biosecurity advances for reducing the transmission of disease during transport.
Researchers with the University of Saskatchewan, the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute and the Prairie Swine Center are working in partnership with Swine Innovation Porc to automate the cleaning and disinfection of swine transport trailers.
Dr. Terry Fonstad, the Associate Dean Research with the University of Saskatchewan's College of Engineering, says work conducted by VIDO, which determined heating trailers to at least 75 degrees for 15 minutes will kill swine pathogens, has dramatically improved transport biosecurity.

Clip-Dr. Terry Fonstad-University of Saskatchewan:
A lot of this was a surprise for us and incidental to the project.
We started out the project trying to figure out how to reduce the cost of washing trailers but, as we got into figuring out how clean is clean, we wanted pathogen free.
Folks down in Iowa had pointed toward this heating thing.
We were able to verify it with VIDO-InterVac and their capabilities.
But the biggest thing was it was adopted across Canada.
We didn't actually know how beneficial this was going to be and the trailer wash facilities really jumped on board.
Many of then had dryers that they modified.
Others have invested in heating units and it's been adopted across Canada in a very short period of time and I think it's probably increased the security on these trailers, things that we couldn't do with chemicals before and all of the things we were doing.
We were doing a good job.
We were washing, we were white glove cleaning, we were chemicaling but there's just too many nooks and crannies that a pathogen could be in and this heating thing has, I think, probably been the biggest benefit to the livestock sector and has probably opportunities in other sectors.

Dr. Fonstad says adoption of heat disinfection by the swine sector was almost immediate.
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Bruce Cochrane.

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