The importance of "empty-time" to reduce the infectious load in the pigpen
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The purpose of the project is to investigate, with an established standardised method, the effect of "empty time" on the level of residual contamination in a pig pen after washing, with or without consecutive disinfection.
A high level of cleanliness is necessary in today’s pig production to reduce the number of disease provoking bacteria (i.e. the infectious load). A high infectious load predisposes for sickness. Infectious agents present can, depending on the balance between infectious load and single individuals resistance, cause anything from subclinical to acute clinical disease. In Swedish farms, all in – all out with meticulous cleaning and disinfection between batches has become standard. Recommendations are that time between batches should be around one week to accommodate cleaning, disinfection, and drying time. In reality, the interval might be shorter only allowing empty-time of 2-5 days. The influence of different empty-times on the infectious load is not known. The aim of this study is to investigate how the infectious load is influenced by 2 and 5 days empty-time, respectively, following soaking, high-pressure washing with hot water, and with or without disinfection.