The brothers Maartin and Leon van der Velden together with their father Rien turned an existing farm they bought in 2013 into a beautiful GGP and GP nucleos farm. From this farm they supply SPF gilts to their own multipier farms (with 4.750 sows) on several locations in The Netherlands and Germany.
They are proving that is is possible to stay SPF in the pig dense area in the south of The Netherlands. ClarCor air filters play an crucial part in keeping out PRRSv, Mycoplasma and influenza. Click on below pictures to see how filters have been applied and which other bio-security measures where taken.
DVM Gerrit Bronsvoort who has been involved as consultant in the steps taken bij Van der Velden explained recently during a presentation in Italy that there are two main strategies to become SPF:
- Depopulation / Repopulation
- Herd closure and rollover:
He explained how within an existing herd with good vaccination scheme it is possible to starvate the PRRS virus, not entering with new animals for 4 months after the second vaccination in 4 week time of all animals and sending away any piglet older than 21 days, regardless what the weight is of the piglets.
After Depop/Repop or Herd Closure it is important to impost a good diagnostic and monitoring system using sentinels (SPF gilts) to check the status of the herd.
In the opinion of DVM Gerrit Bronsvoort the external bio-secutrity is the most important aspect to work on once PRRS free.
- Sperm, make sure the AI station you work with is PRRSv free
- Gilts, watch out introducing animals and adopt them before bringing them in the groep.
- Transport of living and dead animal, make sure non external truck of person has to come in to your farm to load of pick up these animals. Avoid animals once outside can return into the farm (using slide once they pass the treshold).
- Manure transport, if possible create a central slurry draining system and make an pump location dislocated well away from the buildings. Air from the slurry tank could potentially contain virus from the previous location where the tank loaded and you do not want this blown out of the tank underneath your air intake
- Air, in dense area’s air filters are a must have and are effective in keeping out humidity (aerosol) and dust particles that could potentially cary virus from one farm to the other. On the question what DVM Bronsvoort considers a dense area, he responded any farm with an other farm within 3 kilometer is at risk. He mentioned that you not only should think of other farms, but also about manure being spread in the neighborhood and trucks transporting pigs. Trucks trasporting SPF gilts need to be filtered
- Rodent control, obviously a severe protocol is needed to keep any rodent from entering the farm.
Key to an successful approach to become and to stay SPF nevertheless is the MOTIVATION of the owner and manager of location. The example function of them towards the people working on the farm is very big and therefor only if they act with the right mentality the coworkers will adopt it too.
Nevertheless DVM Bronsvoort is very clear: who worked with an SPF herd that for what ever reason gets infected does usually not have to think twice and will return to the SPF status as soon as possible adopting on of the above mentioned strategies. Motivations are simple: less vet cost, more stable production without surprices which is especially important when working with many employees and finally up to € 8,00 / piglet more money.
For further information please call on +31.6.20407187 or write us and we will be more than happy to help you becoming SPF with your farm too.
