Travelling Biosecurity Trailer

This unique trailer provides access to washing facilities and supplies where and when necessary

Shower in, shower out has become standard procedure for keeping poultry disease out of the barn.

MOBILE FACILITIES The biosecurity trailer, shown here at the London Poultry Show, was the brainchild of Brian Herman and is the barrier between infected and clean zones.

But that practice becomes trickier in the unfortunate circumstance of a
disease outbreak. In that situation the goal is to keep the disease
contained and then eradicated. To this end ad hoc washdown and cleanup
measures have been employed.

 While these can be effective, they may not be ideal.

Brian Herman, of Brian’s Poultry Services and Country Boy Equipment and Supplies of Mildmay, Ont., decided there must be a better way.

The result is an ingenious wash in, wash out biosecurity trailer.

The trailer, which was designed and built with the assistance of federal agencies, takes the in and out facilities of a modern poultry barn, adds storage for biocontrol suits, gloves, respirators and the rest of the needed gear and allows it to be moved wherever needed.

It can also be set up right at the front gate of a farm, ensuring that everyone entering or leaving a site has followed all the proper and necessary protocols to reduce the risk of a disease spread.

Wayne Cox, of Country Boy, who put together the trailer, said in the case of a disease outbreak the trailer is “the barrier between the infected zone and the clean zone.”

People enter from the clean side, remove their clean clothing, pass through one of two showers, put on the gear for working the other side and head out onto the farm. On the way out, the process is reversed.

With the two showers sitting side by side in the middle of the trailer there is no way to get from one end of the trailer to the other without passing through the showers.

The trailer has shower in, shower out facilities.  There is no way of getting out of the trailer without passing through the showers.

The whole unit is self-contained with its own generator, water supply and propane tank.

The interior of the trailer is all white panelling for easy and thorough cleaning and disinfecting, Cox said.

The trailer cost $65,000 to build with 80 per cent of the money from government sources and 20 per cent from Brian.

Herman said that he hopes that trailers like this one can be built for and located in every province or region. It would be a comparatively inexpensive way to ensure rapid response times and greater control in case of a disease outbreak and would help reduce the chance the disease will spread from an index farm.

Herman also said that locating the trailers and stockpiles of hazard suits, respirators, disinfectants and other gear used to clean up infected sites (the money for this is already being assembled) across the country would be an effective combination.

All that is needed now is for people to decide that more trailers should be built. They are inexpensive, will be effective and, in a disease outbreak, will be needed.

“What we need is the impetus to do it,” Herman said.