Research conducted by Iowa State University confirms the risk of spreading disease increases when pumping stored manure contaminated with disease causing pathogens. A study funded by the Swine Health Information Center Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program, in partnership with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff, examined the risk of disease introduction across wean to finish sites posed by pumping infected manure.SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says, in an effort to identify strategies to reduce the risk, researchers looked at over 29 hundred pig placements across 612 wean to finish sites.
Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:
As they assessed the data they looked at the odds of finding PRRS and they noted that the odds of PRRS onset within a barn occurring four weeks after pumping was 1.7 times higher as compared to a similar site that did not have PRRS pumped.I think first and foremost this study does confirm that manure pumping events can cause a risk for disease outbreaks so, when we assess biosecurity of how crews are used around a farm, how manure is spread around a farm it should always be held first and foremost that that could be a method of disease transmission and that can occur across different application methods.
It is important to look at, can you time when you pump manure to reduce the likelihood of risk? Can that be when pigs are older versus newly placed and then also, looking at in the lifecycle and the turns of the barn, it does highlight the potential need to remove manure when possible when those barns are empty.
Then lastly, to work with neighbours or other adjacent farms to know that if manure is being pumped those farms can also take biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of disease transmission.
The full final report on this study can be accessed through SHIC's web site at swinehealth.org.
Source : Farmscape.ca