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Unit bio-security is critical to maintaining health on a pig unit. One route of disease transmission which must be controlled is the disposal of dead stock. Ideally, this should be through on-farm incineration, advises Paul Thompson, veterinary consultant to pig-breeding company, ACMC Ltd.
Where a fellmonger is used, design of a ‘dead box’ area needs careful consideration to prevent cross-contamination. While dead boxes should be sited well away from the farm, this does mean a farm vehicle travelling to the dead box and back onto the unit. So wheels and any part of the vehicle which have touched the area need cleansing and disinfection.
Dead boxes are best designed to stand on a concrete pad with water and disinfectant available — perhaps via a holding tank — to clean down the pad after collection and deposition. Boxes should have a’ farm side’ and a ‘fellmonger side’ so they can be filled from the farm side and emptied from the other side.
www.acmc.co.uk
