Disinfection Station Helps Protect Island Livestock

* Agriculture and Forestry [to Oct 2003]
Take the concept of the self-serve car wash and think big – as in tractor trailer.

That's the idea behind the trucking disinfection station established by Upton Trucking in Hampshire. A hog producer himself, Gordon Lank said his company has been hauling livestock for several producers throughout the province for the last several years. With the herd health protocols now in place in the livestock industry to protect from such things as hoof and mouth disease, it is essential the equipment be squeaky clean.

The disinfection station works much the same way as the self-serve car washes that are in the province. The bays, of course are much bigger – after all it takes a fair bit of room to handle a semi. There are actually two bays for washing trucks using high pressure hot water.

There is also a low pressure spray unit for disinfecting vehicles, along with washing machines and showers to disinfect the drivers. "It's no good disinfecting the rig, if the driver is not clean," Gordon explained.

While trucks from his company are the biggest users, Gordon said it is also available for rental at a very small fee. Since the operation is self-service, there is no need for staff, so that keeps the costs down to roughly half what the bill would be for a similar service in Ontario. Close to 500 trucks a year use the facility, and Gordon said there is room for added capacity.

The wood-framed building is self-contained, and the waste water runs down a sloping concrete floor where the manure, bedding and debris is separated from the water and the fine materials. The waste water is then pumped into a nearby tile field.

Gordon said there have been a few requests for customized cleaning service, mostly in case of breeding stock being shipped to the American market. He said the facility is also being used by out-of-province truckers to prepare for moving high health breeding stock and by producers shipping animals to out-of-province competitions like the Royal Winter Fair.

"We also have a number of veterinarians who use the service to clean their vehicles between farm visits to make sure they are not carrying anything from one farm to another," he said. "In this day and age, a disease can spread so fast – we certainly saw evidence of that with foot and mouth disease in Europe."

Now, close to 30 percent of Island hogs going to market and 80 percent of weaner pigs are hauled by trucks that go through the Upton Trucking facility. Lank said he is expecting those numbers to increase in the years to come, adding, "The health of their livestock is the biggest asset a producer has – we need to do everything possible to protect that."

This article is one of a series prepared for the Prince Edward Island Agriculture Awareness Committee to highlight innovations in the agriculture industry.

Media Contact: Island Information Service