Clearly define the clean-dirty line at every entry, exit point and what practices are essential to maintaining a disease-free environment for your pigs.
Not removing shoes in the proper spot or showering in incorrectly before entering a farm. Not properly sanitizing your lunch when coming into work on the farm in the morning. Letting wean pigs you’re loading for transport come off the trailer back into the farm.
These are some everyday ways swine producers can breach biosecurity protocols. Such actions can create an entry point for a pathogen to get into the farm and possibly infect the herd. The offender may not realize they forgot a step, or might be a new worker who doesn’t know or remember the full protocol yet. This is where a camera mounted in the employee entry area on the farm can help earn its keep.
Cameras in pig production facilities have been dramatically helpful with procedural biosecurity audits, both preventive and following disease outbreaks to help track down verified and potential points of entry. Recordings serve as an impartial witness to past actions, even if a producer originally intended the camera to primarily be used for daily training and security.
In many states the law requires a USDA-accredited veterinarian be on-site every 30 days to write a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection for livestock crossing state lines. While no formal audit is required during these monthly visits our vets typically complete biosecurity audits to identify any potential opportunities for improvement.
I have learned to notice certain clues of breached biosecurity during my monthly visits to swine farms. As one example — if shoes are too far from the bench in the people entry area for someone to have reasonably been able to get over the bench and into the “clean” side without their socks or bare feet touching the “dirty” floor, the person probably didn’t enter the farm following our procedures. Camera footage can help note these instances better, the same way it helps producers and farm managers improve biosecurity.
Cameras take much guesswork out of biosecurity management, letting us rely on impartial footage either in a casual review or in trying to follow a herd outbreak back to the pathogen’s source. Even cameras don’t guarantee we’ll always find a “smoking gun” for a disease outbreak, but if they can help narrow down the origin to a potential practice, entry or vendor, the producer can address the infraction for future improvements.
A farm’s biosecurity is a system of barriers designed to reduce the risk of a novel pathogen infecting the pigs. These barriers include clearly defined clean-dirty lines (CDLs), limited transfer points — tightly controlled entry for people, animals and supplies, as well as live animal and mortality exits — and sanitation expectations that apply to everyone, such as showers, lunch entry, downtime and more.
Biosecurity infractions most commonly occur anywhere there’s a CDL, as these are where there is potential for contamination from the “dirty” side of the farm into the “clean” side. My advice is to have as few of these CDL areas as possible on your farm. The most common spots for infractions are the employee entry area, lunch or supply entry areas and the live-animal loadout area.
The first two rely on many individuals consistently following the rules, including personnel who do not routinely visit the farm, such as maintenance staff or visitors. Employee entry areas should be clearly marked, with shoe covers worn upon exiting vehicles, a bench in place for physical separation, showers and other precautions.
Still, it only takes one person carrying a pathogen on their clothes, shoes or body to skip a step when entering the facility, to compromise the farm’s biosecurity. The same risk applies with supplies, lunch containers or other items that are not properly disinfected, into the farm.
No two farms’ biosecurity plans are identical. Here’s some general advice to all producers: Clearly define the CDL at every entry and exit point and determine what practices are essential to maintaining a disease-free environment for your pigs.
People entry:
CDL: The bench
Watch for: (1) removing and leaving shoes on the dirty side before swinging feet over to the clean side without touching the dirty floor; (2) not allowing phones and coats past the bench to the clean side
Supply room entry:
CDL: The door is always the CDL, but the room’s status changes
Watch for: (1) when the room is being loaded with new supplies, it’s dirty. Recommendation is to fill the room and leave it closed for 7 days for a heated decontamination of potential pathogens; (2) when the room is being unloaded after the 7 days from the farm side, it is clean, as are its contents
Animal loadout:
CDL: Door/truck interface
Watch for: (1) pigs should not go back and forth across the CDL; (2) people should not cross the CDL and those on both sides should wear protective gear such as rubber gloves and Tyvek coveralls (or Tyvek-like material); (3) wash and disinfect the chute immediately after loading all pigs
Mortality removal:
CDL: Exit door of mortality room
Watch for: (1) sow and piglet mortalities should be removed without outside supplies or personnel touching the clean side; (2) all sow and piglet mortalities should be removed at the end of the day and not throughout the day; (3) do not also use room for supplies and equipment storage; (4) wash and disinfect the room immediately after mortality removal
Outdoor parking:
CDL: Door of each vehicle
Watch for: put on booties while exiting the vehicle and remove before re-entering vehicle
Making major biosecurity improvements to a farm can be expensive and time-consuming. But even inexpensive physical or free behavioral changes in procedure can run up against roadblocks. I have found that common barriers to adoption and enforcement of protocols are usually lack of understanding or language differences.
Many swine farm workers are native Spanish speakers, and even those who understand some English will likely learn more if the rules are explained in their first language. We work closely with the Carthage System, which employs bilingual production managers where needed, and also provides written instructions in both Spanish and English.
Lack of understanding is somewhat different, and can happen even in a common language. I believe in explaining why standard operating procedures should be followed; people deserve to know how following the rules helps them and the farm succeed. I usually approach this with the mindset of: “Here’s why each step is important, even if it’s adding a little time to the overall task.”
Cameras are typically thought of as a corrective tool for mistakes, but they can be more than that. Being able to use your daily footage to pull out examples of adherence or extra effort, and praise those employees where you can, is quite beneficial. I suggest saving any camera footage of team members following proper SOPs to use as training materials for the future.
With proper biosecurity protocols in place and compliance with SOPs, farms will be more biosecure and may see an increase in health and production.
