The concept of a clean-dirty line in your barn is not new, but you may be underestimating the critical role that it plays in keeping your herd’s health status where you want it.
With the start of a new year, it’s a great time to review how well you, your employees and anyone who may visit your farm are adhering to the necessary protocols to maintain a strict line of separation from the clean and dirty sides of your facilities. Your farm’s health status, and ultimately, your bottom line will undoubtedly be affected depending on your ability to maintain this critical border.
Good intentions
While all producers would say they know about the importance of biosecurity, it’s a different thing to abide by the standard operating procedures (SOPs) every day. Keeping risk low for pathogen introduction to your animals is only as good as your worst day.
In my experience, I see producers with great on-farm biosecurity plans and intentions, who feel good about their protocols. However, over time, new employees or visitors who may not have been given the proper training or rationale on biosecurity importance to a pig farm’s daily operation and long-term success, can have unintended consequences.
The bench works when used correctly
The Danish bench system is hardly new to many U.S. swine farms, but its effectiveness, when used correctly, cannot be understated when it comes to reducing the risk of bringing in pathogens to a farm.
A common mistake that I see is that people don’t realize that the bench is meant to fully divide the dirty and clean sides, thus creating a strict line of separation. That means shoes/boots must stay on the dirty side and sock feet cannot touch the dirty side and then touch the clean side without compromising the bench’s reason to exist. Too many times I’ve seen this process not followed correctly.
I’ve been to a lot of hog operations and seen shoes that are either six feet away from the bench, or pointing in a direction that tells me those people took their shoes off and could not have been sitting on the bench, meaning their socks were dirty – and likely carrying bacteria.
Don’t forget other entry points
Sometimes it’s the non–primary entry points where I see mistakes made. Most farms today have windows or counter entries to the “inside office” area of a facility where common items such as office supplies, lunch bags, beverages, and so on are passed through without proper decontamination.
Just like shoes or boots, personal items, and packaging can carry pathogens and disease into the clean side of a facility that’s then able to reach production areas. These items should go through a UV chamber or fogging as is practical. Neither one is 100 percent foolproof, but it’s certainly another barrier of protection that should be maintained.
The same goes for farm supplies, vaccines, artificial insemination rods, etc.
Sometimes workers will place their lunch or other personal item in the disinfecting area but on top of someone else’s items. What they may not know is that the parts of the items touching probably won’t get disinfected, and contaminants manage to sneak through. It happens more than you think.
Halt the chronic and acute disease
While biosecurity alone is not a silver bullet, it does form the basis of every sound swine health management plan. This is why it’s a critical SOP that everyone on a farm be educated and practice good biosecurity measures. Workers not only should know how to keep bacteria and viruses out of herds, but also the difference between chronic and acute disease. If you practice bad biosecurity, you are doomed to experience routine, acute disease outbreaks, but not doomed to chronic poor performance. That’s because you can choose to clean your farm and invest resources to combat an ongoing health issue. Otherwise, you can end up with ongoing acute health challenges that can keep building on one another. And for the record, no one should have to deal with three or more stains of PRRS in a herd and those negative outcomes.
Some new resources to use
Finally, I recently came across some new biosecurity resources. Coming from the University of Illinois, these fact-filled information sheets provide a host of how-to tips and lists for everyone who works in or on a pig farm to be knowledgeable about and follow, per your farm’s biosecurity plan.
I particularly like the fact that these new resources have broken out key parts of production such as: How to Enter a Pig Farm, Biosecurity Checklist, African Swine Fever Checklist, Secure Pork Supply Checklist, and Foreign Animal Disease Reporting.
In the end, it’s about more than simply knowing what to do, but putting these protocols and practices into use every day if your goal is to maximize your herd’s full potential. Doing so can keep your herd’s health on the right side of the line for success.
Editor’s Note:
Clayton Johnson, DVM, is one of the swine health experts at Carthage Veterinary Service who relies on science and experience to provide unique and practical solutions to achieve the best outcomes for producers and their animals.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
Labor Turnover and Biosecurity: Avoid a Multi-Million Dollar Mistake
The Elephant In The Barn: Why We Can’t Ignore This Risk on the Pig Farm
Biosecurity: Are We Adding Hazards Faster Than Control Measures?
