By Amy Maschhoff, DVM, associate director of health for The Maschhoffs
Despite continuous efforts within The Maschhoffs and the industry as a whole, biosecurity and containment efforts haven’t fully reduced porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) prevalence within the U.S. swine industry. More often than not, after a disease break, the veterinarian on The Maschhoffs’ team will report, “I didn’t find a “smoking gun.”
A “smoking gun” is the term commonly used to describe finding the cause of a disease break, an event in which a pathogen like PRRS virus entered the herd that was not previously present. However, in The Maschhoffs system, because finding the “smoking gun” doesn’t always happen outright, disease breaks have become learning opportunities. Experiences and lessons learned year over year have led to assessment tools/template improvements, protocol changes, support function process changes, facility upgrades and proactive biosecurity-focused projects.
Crisis Management Tools
In the hours and days immediately following a new break, the use of standardized templates have become extremely useful. When diagnostic reports come in with unexpected results, emotions are high and all parties (health, operations, support functions) involved go into crisis mode. Utilizing a standardized template that outlines all connected contacts and risk factors alleviates potential misses in communication. It also can identify and stop risk factors of spreading that disease to another farm in the same geographical area, potentially allowing for bio-containment. The crisis management tools are not fool proof today, but they are a solid foundation for use in an immediate crisis situation.
Search for Vulnerabilities
Within the same day and week following an acute outbreak, a more detailed investigation gets underway. Normally, the internal system veterinarian utilizes an outbreak tool to look for vulnerabilities – multiple smoking guns. This tool lists a variety of risk factors or potential connections that may have brought the new disease into the site. Vulnerabilities such as transport, feed, supplies, people, and weather are included in all investigations. Ensuring that those vulnerabilities are assessed a full month ahead of the break has also increased the number of potential smoking guns identified in outbreak investigations.
Though an internal tool is used at The Maschhoffs, the Swine Health Information Center and Secure Pork Supply websites both have excellent resources for producers desiring to make that risk factors list. Because there are good external resources, it is worth noting that most outbreak investigations at The Maschhoffs are led by an internal veterinarian, however, in some special circumstances there has been a benefit of including a third-party auditor. In those situations, it has been valuable to get a fresh set of eyes on the site system to bring a new perspective and critical analysis of the situation.
Proactive Biosecurity Assessments
One of the biggest changes over the past few years is the attempt to switch from reactive to proactive in our site biosecurity assessments and biosecurity-focused projects. For the past two years, it has been the goal of the health team to conduct an annual biosecurity assessment at all breed-to-wean assets. This assessment creates a list of biosecurity opportunities prior to a disease break, whether those are changes in protocols or facilities upgrade needs.
Additionally, the system has an internal reporting system for biosecurity risks that can be reported by any employee at any time, creating an outlet for continued communication of risk factors. Finally, another proactive process improvement has been biosecurity focused projects. In these projects, the health team has coordinated with support functions such as transport, nutrition operations or environmental crews to create clarity and improved understanding of biosecurity risks as well as expectations. These projects are ongoing but have shed interesting light on vulnerabilities while in process.
The goal of these changes is to meet the vulnerabilities head on and prevent the breaks. Coupled with an outbreak investigation at the immediate onset of a new disease, these tools together over time will hopefully reduce the frequency of disease breaks and improve production performance. As viruses continue to evolve and elude our current biosecurity measures, it is vital for producers to mitigate disease through good biosecurity practices to meet production potentials.
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