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HPAI biosecurity should extend to transportation fleet

A biosecurity specialist is encouraging the poultry and livestock industries to properly sanitize transportation fleets.

Keith Bailey with Hydro-Chem Systems says highly pathogenic avian influenza is difficult to manage because it can be transmitted multiple ways, including by vehicles.

“The virus is being transferred by the feces of birds. It ends up drying or whatever, getting onto peoples’ tires and then relocated.”

He tells Brownfield HPAI transmission can be mitigated by washing vehicles coming on and off the farm.

“By using a certified HPAI disinfectant or sanitizer on that vehicle, you’re able to then at least say that virus did not get transferred from one farm to the other because we completely sanitized it. Every square inch of this vehicle was covered.”

Bailey recommends farms use a single entry and exit-point and says the Hydro-Chem system covers the top, sides, and undercarriage of vehicles with an EPA-approved sanitizer.