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Three growing pig sites, with the same load-out design and owned by a single production system, were used for the pilot study. At the first site, 54 grams (g) of dry fluorescent powder was poured directly over and spread evenly onto dry wood chips on the floor of the livestock trailer. At the second site, 54 g of dry fluorescent powder was mixed with 0.25 kilograms (kg) of dry wood chips in a large plastic bag. At the third site, 216 g of dry fluorescent powder was mixed with approximately 0.5 L of OB gel and 0.25 kg of dry wood chips in a large plastic bag. At each site, the fluorescent powder or the fluorescent powder mixture was spread evenly on the floor of the livestock trailer just inside the roll-up door that opens to the chute before the pigs were loaded. A driver and loading crew of 3 or 4 people loaded the pigs according to the production system’s standard loading procedures where the driver entered the trailer through a side door at the rear of the trailer and was not allowed to cross the line of separation between the trailer and the load-out chute.
At the third site, where 216 g of fluorescent powder mixed with OB gel was used, the transfer of contamination from livestock trailers to the pens inside the barn was confirmed by the detection of fluorescent powder on the bottom of the load-out crews boots, on their cutting board, in the chute, load-out alleyway, center alleyway of the barn and in the first 3 pens adjacent to the load-out alleyway, on both sides of the center alleyway.
The results of this pilot study confirmed that during marketing events, contamination from livestock trailers can be transferred from the trailer to the center alleyway and pens where the remaining pigs in a group are housed and that a fluorescent powder may be used to study the transfer of contamination from livestock trailers during marketing events.
Chelsea Ruston, Daniel Linhares, Pete Thomas and Derald J. Holtkamp. Pilot study to evaluate the use of a fluorescent powder (Glo Germ) to study the transfer of contamination from livestock trailers to the center alleyway and pens in the barn during marketing events. Project #19-147 SHIC.
