Outbreaks of diseases such as foot and mouth disease, African swine fever, and avian influenza have devastating consequences for farms and the entire industry.
Practicing good biosecurity at all times helps to prevent and control the spread of diseases.
What is biosecurity?
Farm biosecurity is a set of practices that are aimed at preventing and reducing the spread of infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites within or between farms.
Robust biosecurity measures focus on three core components: isolation, traffic control, and sanitation.
A thorough risk assessment will review all processes involving the movement of people, animals, and vehicles. You will then need to enforce effective control procedures to mitigate the risk of disease contamination.
Biosecurity control measures
Feed trucks and animal transport vehicles are one of the most common ways that pathogens transmit between farms.
Poultry farms across Europe have been implementing automatic vehicle disinfection systems to mitigate the risk of avian influenza contamination.
Matt Donald, a UK poultry farm owner, said: “At a time when biosecurity is essential to prevent the spread of avian influenza, I get asked what control measures we have implemented.”
“We have an Agriwash disinfectant gate from Wheelwash.com. It gives a thorough soak of all vehicles entering the poultry farm.”
These systems spray disinfectant evenly over vehicle wheels and wheel arches as traffic enters and exits the site. Sensors automatically ensure each vehicle is decontaminated.
“A lot of farms still rely on manual biosecurity measures. They put a brush, hose, and some disinfectant at a site entrance, and hope visitors and staff will use it before they enter or leave the site,” said Martin Liljestrand, Sales Expert at Wheelwash in Sweden and Norway.
“The problem is that manual methods rely heavily on people a) remembering to disinfect the vehicle and b) doing a good enough job at disinfecting it.”
He added: “Our Agriwash system eliminates human error. You can be confident every vehicle is always decontaminated.”
Agriwash is an automated vehicle wheel and wheel arch disinfection system. It uses a mix of water and your chemical disinfectant to mist the underneath and the side of any vehicle which enters or exits your farm or facility.
Agriwash is a biosecurity control measure that provides complete peace of mind that vehicle wheel disinfection has taken place 24/7.
Read more on Agriwash here: https://wheelwash.com/agriwash-systems/