Iowa Biosecurity Workshop to Focus on Risk, Caretaker Entry

February 13, 2019 — 

AMES, Iowa - Swine herd health is the number one driver of performance and profitability. As the global spread of African Swine Fever continues, it is timely to review on-farm biosecurity. That's why the Iowa Pork Industry Center is partnering with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach swine specialists to offer workshops based on understanding biosecurity and developing plans to implement appropriate strategies. Swine specialist Colin Johnson said one such workshop will be held Feb. 19 at the Marshall County Extension office, beginning at 1 p.m. [Source: IPIC]

"One expected outcome of attending this workshop is for producers to discover new ways to think about biosecurity and not be stymied by it," he said. "We'll show some hypothetical examples of a farm breaking annually with PRRS, then implementing changes to employee entry which reduce the risk to less than to one break in over twenty years." The program uses lecture and activities to demonstrate and identify possible risk events and carrying agents that can compromise a farm's biosecurity protocols. The workshop enables pork producers to learn from case studies and prioritize the highest ranking risk events for their own operation.

Primary topics for this session include diseases of concern, pathogen transmission, risk events, prioritizing farm risks, cost of disease, carrying agents, intervention strategies, best practices, implementing biosecurity culture.

"With employee entry generally ranked as the highest risk event, much of this workshop will be focused on that," Johnson said. "We'll also cover the effectiveness of traffic patterns, bench entries and other measures that affect risk."

Preregistration is strongly encouraged to ensure adequate space and materials. Preregister by contacting the Marshall County office by phone at 641-752-1551 or email chelsea@iastate.edu.

For more information on this workshop or other swine-related needs, contact Johnson by phone at 515-291-9287 or email colinj@iastate.edu.