Farmscape for February 9, 2022

A Research Scientist with the Prairie Swine Centre says a project aimed at establishing new swine transport trailer design guidelines will be used mostly by swine producers and swine transporters but they'll also assist trailer manufacturers, inspectors and regulators.
To help reduce the cost and speed up the process of cleaning and disinfecting swine transport trailers, the Prairie Swine Centre, in partnership with Swine Innovation Porc, is developing new swine transport trailer design guidelines and an app that will calculate whether a particular design will rate high or low in terms of cleanability, safety and animal welfare.
Dr. Bernardo Predicala, a Research Scientist Engineering with the Prairie Swine Centre, says the main goal is to provide pig producers with a check list that they can use when assessing a potential trailer that they want to buy, build or use.

Clip-Dr. Bernardo Predicala-Prairie Swine Centre:
The main target, users for the information generated from this project will be pig producers and truckers who transport the pigs regularly.
The information can also be used by trailer manufacturers as well as by inspectors and regulators.
The project aims to develop a list of design criteria or specifications for a good trailer that will be suitable for use within industry in terms of biosecurity and welfare, so there are really no specific recommendations.
There's actually a list of many recommendations, specifications or guidelines that will comprise design criteria.
The recommendation would be to apply the design criteria going forward to ensure that transport trailers meet the criteria.

Dr. Predicala notes trailer designs typically fall into three main categories, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
However, he acknowledges there is a wide range of choices and given the amount of customization available, even trailers from the same manufacturers will be different.
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Bruce Cochrane.

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