The Rural Voice, 2002-06, Page 23empties out, if you do get a problem
then you have a chance to make a
fresh start. That's one plus of that
kind of barn: from a biosecurity point
of view it's not as risky."
Also in need of high biosecurity
standards are multiplier herds.
The risk increases as herd size
increases, Templeton said. In a
small farm, if disease gets into
the barn it can stabilize very quickly.
"As we get larger farms, it takes
longer to stabilize (just like) it takes
longer for a town to get over the flu
than one class in the school. And so
because of that we need to be more
careful."
But there are biosecurity benefits
to this kind of economy of scale,
Templeton says. "For instance if you
ask a trucking company to come to
your farm with a clean truck and
you're a small farm and you're
picking up 50 pigs, they may give
you a surcharge because it's a few
pigs and it complicates the whole
trucking process because they have
Biosecurity benefits
from economies
of scale
to have a clean truck for each farm.
But if they can bring a truck and fill
it, from that point of view it's
easier."
As well, the costs of the necessary
steps in biosecurity are less per pig
with a big operation than with a
small one, she says.
If veterinarians are going to do
biosecurity assessments it's a good
idea to get a half-dozen or so
producers together and go through
the process together, she says. "I
think that process brings out ideas on
how other people handle things and it
becomes a problem -solving process."
Some farmers insist on having
Monday -morning feed delivery
because the trucks start out clean, but
what if the feed truck driver wears
the same boots every day and
climbed into the truck to move the
divider, and thus contaminated the
feed'? That's why more feed
companies are moving toward
enclosed bins as an important step in
biosecurity.
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JUNE 2002 19