Heat Proving Effective in Inactivating Swine Pathogens in Transport Equipment

CANADA - The use of heat is emerging as an excellent alternative for deactivating the pathogens responsible for the spread of swine disease that can contaminate swine transport vehicles, writes Bruce Cochrane.
calendar icon 15 August 2016
clock icon 3 minute read

On behalf of Swine Innovation Porc scientists with the University of Saskatchewan, the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute, VIDO-Intervac and the Prairie Swine centre are working to automate the washing and disinfection of swine transport vehicles to reduce the risk of exposing swine to infections.

Dr Volker Gerdts, the Associate Director Research with VIDO-InterVac, says VIDO-InterVac's role is to determine at what temperatures the 12 most common swine pathogens will be inactivated and how much time it will take for heat treatment to be effective.

Dr Volker Gerdts-VIDO-Intervac:

These include both viruses and bacteria.

We've selected viruses that are highly relevant, so the PED virus for example, the PRRS virus, PCV virus, Influenza and so on.

Then we also included a number of bacteria that are also relevant to the industry but on the other hand also are know to survive in the environment.

Those include bacteria like Brachyspira, like Streptococcus and others.

There is quite a difference between some of these bacteria and some of these viruses in terms of survival.

While some viruses are already inactivated at 55 degrees, others really require 70 degrees and even higher than that and the same goes for the bacteria.

Without going into detail, it is possible to inactivate them all and you'll require a high temperature for that and a very short time and then it's possible to even inactivate these pathogens within minutes.

Dr Gerdts says researchers are on schedule to complete the lab work by the end of this year and will then be ready to take the study into the field.

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