Researchers working on behalf of the Canadian Swine Health Board are confident the use of air filtration has the potential to be a game changer when it comes to protecting swine from airborne viruses.
The Quebec based Swine Development Centre or CDPQ, in partnership with the Saskatchewan based Prairie Swine Centre, is coordinating five Canadian Swine Health Board projects involving veterinarians and engineers from across Canada, aimed at improving the protection of Canadian swine farms from disease through the use of air filtration.
Francis Pouliot, an agricultural engineer with CDPQ, says we know farms can be contaminated via the air so, in areas where we have a high concentration of pigs, air filtration is now seen as a tool to improve livestock biosecurity.
Among the projects financed in part by the Canadian Swine Health Board, the first one is we want to find better ways to protect farms already using filtered air.
The second project is to develop a biocontainment system in quarantine barns that filters the air at the intake and also at the exhaust fans.
The third one is to develop an emergency kit to prevent the spread of the virus via the building exhaust fans if there is a PRRS outbreak.
The project number four is to work on an animal transport trailer with filtered air.
The last one concerns the tech transfer program.
The idea here is for all four projects, once they are done, we will transfer the information to the people or to the industry.
Pouliot says the projects are exploring different avenues for improvement and he is confident this work will have a significant impact for the industry.
He encourages anyone interested in this work to contact CDPQ or the Prairie Swine Centre for more information.
