Perimeter biosecurity

24-02-2009 | Home | Expert opinion

John Gadd Topic: Pig Management

I’ve been asked to forecast what a pig farm perimeter might look like a couple of decades into the future. Starting from a a excellent suggestion by the PIC company that it should be divided into ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ sectors, I have taken things somewhat further.

My ‘dirty’ sector is from ‘A’ on the plan to ‘B’, see Figure 1 below. It is where most of the coming and going takes place. On a larger farm this©could take up the whole of one side rather than the ‘L’-shaped layout shewn, which I guess©better suits a smaller-sized unit.

Notice that the staff’s feet and clothes©as well as©their vehicles are strictly confined©to the ‘clean’ sector (‘C’ to ‘B’) away from the wheel and underbody contamination from all other vehicles visiting the farm.

Vehicles
In©Britain, our Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks of several years ago taught us how vehicles visiting a farm©can©spread disease and that the feet of the farm staff and their vehicles wheels©should never traverse the same ground as outside vehicles and people.©

I suggest all producers should study the concept and not leave it ‘to the future’. Anyone building anew will©of course find©little difficulty in following the©suggestions.©Even those with existing layouts should think hard about©how to alter their©perimeter©groundplan into separate ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ access areas, if needs be over a period of alterations.

Figure 1. A biosecure layout minimising contamination, modified from a PIC Company suggestion. Copyright by John Gadd, 2009.