A clinical professor with the University of Nottingham is encouraging swine producers to step up their focus on sanitation and disinfection to protect their herds from becoming infected by enteric diseases.
Enteric diseases, those that cause diarrhea, account for an estimated 30 percent of pig diseases around the world and, because they directly impact feed conversion, there is a strong indication that these infections have a greater economic impact than other diseases.
Dr. Steven McOrist, a clinical professor with the University of Nottingham, says the pathogens that cause diarrhea are spread through contaminated manure.
They typically will survive in manure.
E. coli, Salmonella, Swine Dysentery, Lawsonia, all the different viruses and bacteria that cause diarrhea typically will survive in the manure, in a pile of poo, for something like let’s say two or three weeks.
In terms of manure control within a barn obviously it’s important in terms of sanitation.
Sanitation and disinfection are not particularly sexy topics but they’re very important for farms to work hard at, to give good attention and care to.
Make sure that pens are cleaned properly.
Disinfection is a two-stage process.
We’ve got to have a cleaning washing stage and then follow that up with an actual disinfection phase where we use some product that will hopefully kill those viruses and bacteria that have been sitting there on the floor in feces and make sure that they’re killed.
Dr. McOrist acknowledges successful eradication of these pathogens requires a lot of planning and effort, particularly for swine dysentery, but he estimates within six months after implementation incurred costs would be recovered through increased productivity and profitability.
He notes there’s been progress in the development of vaccines for circovirus and ileitis and although there’s research underway to find a vaccine for swine dysentery we still don’t have any good vaccines.
