This program identified solutions and practical outcomes that directly address the challenges producers face in maintaining and protecting swine health. The U.S. is the world’s third-largest producer and consumer of pork, and threats to swine health can harm producers, consumers and the economy.
Understanding Biosecurity Challenges Threatening Swine Health
As a critical food supplier and economic driver in the agricultural sector, the U.S. pork industry is keen to ensure the health of swine herds and avoid emerging diseases. Producers needed solutions to the numerous biosecurity challenges they face in protecting swine health, particularly in the critical wean-to-harvest phases of swine production and during transport.
Transforming Swine Health Management
The research funded 23 projects, many of which have already delivered valuable insights and tools that are transforming the way pork producers and veterinarians manage the health of swine herds. The research included improved swine transportation trailer cleaning practices that helped producers refine their cleaning practices, ensuring that each trailer is adequately sanitized while also saving producers thousands of dollars by avoiding unnecessary or ineffective cleaning methods.
Another deceptively simple but incredibly effective solution prevents the spread of disease in barns by covering exhaust fans with nylon tear-resistant fan socks, which many pork operations already own. By using them to cover exhaust fans, producers significantly reduce the risk of viruses spreading, making it an ideal addition to any farm’s biosecurity plan.
Other research investigated the efficacy of a new waterless technology to decontaminate porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in trailers and provided producers with an objective understanding of the opportunity cost forfeited through poor biosecurity.