Almost a decade ago, the Pipestone Management validated its transportation sanitation protocols against the PRRS virus. This fall, we conducted similar trials at South Dakota State University to determine if the protocols we have in place are effective against PEDV, which has been detected just this year in the U.S. and is spreading rapidly.

These trials were conducted at SDSU in a very secure environment, so as not to spread the virus outside the building. You are encouraged to talk with your veterinarian about the results, but the good news is—we don’t have to change anything with regard to our practices in cleaning trucks. Our protocol is effective against both PRRS and PEDV.

We’re currently testing our 3M filters against PEDV, again in a very safe environment at SDSU. We’ll get the results of these trials to our stockholders and clients by the end of November. In all these tests, we’re looking at the biosecurity used against PRRS and asking—does it work for PEDV also?

Disinfectant counters both PRRS and PEDV
This time of year, we usually see an uptick in PRRS virus. As it happens, our industry has also noticed an upsurge in the number of new PEDV cases in the last few weeks.

You can be proud of the work Pipestone Management is doing to see if the biosecurity measures we have taken against PRRS are effective with PEDV. Preserve International makes the Synergize™ disinfectant used for many years as our disinfectant of choice in truck washes and on our farms. It has been very effective against PRRS, but no work had been done to this point in testing our transportation protocol and that disinfectant.

Thanks to the SDSU studies, we now know this disinfectant is effective against PEDV, not only in truck washes but in proper trailer sanitation. Now we know we’re moving in the right direction on the sow farm, too, by washing and disinfecting loadout chutes and in our biosecurity measures in general.

Soon, we’ll know if our new generation 3M filters are effective also.

PEDV harder to kill
Two of our system’s sow farms were diagnosed with PEDV in May, which was when the U.S. outbreak was first reported. Since then, we’ve had no new infections. We’ve bolstered biosecurity practices and reviewed them with thought that anything we do to fight PRRS should help reduce the risk of PEVD, and vice versa.

We’ve also reviewed our pig transportation practices and upgraded our auditing of truck washes and trailers, in an effort to reduce further PEDV infection. We believe that dirty trailers are one of the most common ways for PEDV to be transmitted. This virus survives outside of the pig for much longer periods of time and at warmer temperatures. Outside of the pig, it’s harder to kill than PRRS and PGE. Infected animals shed PEDV in very high amounts, so a little bit of contaminated manure is full of virus. Because of this, we have to work much harder at sanitation with this virus than with others.

It is one thing to know the protocol works, but another to make sure the protocol is being followed correctly, so we know that what is effective is being done. Execution of proper protocols is one of the key things we’ve been focusing on lately.

In all this, we are trying to protect the shareholder by making sure that a trailer is clean as it transfers pigs from the nursery to the finisher, and that pigs being transported from the finisher to the packer are clean. Lots of trailers never get washed when they go back to the farm to pick up market hogs.

Contact any Pipestone Management veterinarian to review transportation and other biosecurity protocols, and to hear what we’ve learned from the SDSU studies.