Iowa State University Examines Truck Washing and Decontamination

Mar 17, 2025

Research conducted by Iowa State University suggests swine producers and transporters can reduce truck washing and decontamination costs through the strategic scheduling of truck washing.
Iowa State University, with funding provided through the Swine Health Information Center Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program in partnership with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff, used computer modeling to determine how different levels of swine transport trailer washing impact the spread of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.
SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the study found increasing the decontamination rate significantly reduces PED spread but it's not always economically plausible to wash 100 percent of the trailers 100 percent of the time.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:
This modeling really does show the impact of network connectivity between sites, between systems and even in different geographic regions.
While it does look at different scenarios, this information can help both production managers and transportation managers and their veterinarians assess what are the risks in their particular area and then try to understand that it may not be necessary to wash 100 percent of the vehicles all of the time and still be able to take advantage of reduction in disease risk.

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