Are lorry washing facilities up to scratch?

Following a recent spike in the number of swine dysentery cases, it is clear that biosecurity is not as tight as it should be. With African swine fever circulating in Europe, this is a concern for everyone associated with the pig industry.

Recent mapping work shows that even if you are only transporting pigs to slaughter, and abide by all the standstill regulations, you are still at risk. In fact, the longer that lorries are left contaminated, the quicker disease can spread. Just a single day of contamination will reduce the effectiveness of all biosecurity efforts by half.

We would like to get a feel for the standard of lorry washing facilities at markets and abattoirs across England and invite farmers and hauliers to complete a short questionnaire. Responses will be anonymous and the questionnaire should take no longer than a couple of minutes to complete.

The results will help us to identify good lorry wash practices and highlight where improvements can be made.