Thank you, Bruce. So, tonight we're going to be talking about cleaning. So why is cleaning important?

So if you're going to wash your truck, the first thing you'd do would be to get rid of the bulk of the muck. The same if you were going to wash the dishes, you'd scrape off the big bits before you put them in the washing up bowl or into the dishwasher. And it's exactly the same for cleaning pig pens.

So there's lots of muck that in, that's in there already that needs to be getting rid of before you can even start thinking about using detergents and using disinfectants and doing the finer cleaning. So by doing this, we're getting to, aiming to get rid of the organic matter, which contains lots of organic microorganisms, and this allows any cleaning, any detergents and disinfectants to, to work on the, the bacteria that's really inherent and could cause more problems. So where to start.

So there's obviously lots of steps involved in the cleaning process, but the first one, if you've got a pig pen is going to be removing the pigs themselves. Once you remove them, they're going to stop producing milk that's just adding to the problem. Then you want to look at removing any feed.

If the pigs aren't there, you don't need the feed in place anymore, and the feed's going to act. If you leave it in place, the feed will act to attract wild birds or rodents, which can cause your more contaminate contamination problems. So the first step, once you've removed the organic matter, is to basically to do it what's called a dry clean.

So with the dry cleaning, you want to remove as much of the organic matter as possible. So we're talking about muck, dust, bedding, etc. Try and resist the temptation to keep back any clean straw for reuse.

Once it's been in contact with one set of animals, if it's going to be a reservoir for more infection and just spreading that infection on. Through the next set of animals that it comes into contact with. Any material that's below the slats should also be removed if possible.

If this isn't possible, then you want to try and make sure that the levels remain at least 30 centimetres below that of the floor surface and make sure that any material can't leak or overflow back into the building once you've cleaned it, because that's just going to recontaminate the problem. Along with removing kind of the, the, the muck that the pigs have produced, you also want to be looking at removing dust, and this is just from ledges, from ceilings, from fans. So not necessarily areas the pigs will have become directly in contact with.

But there's always a potential there, especially bacteria can quite happily stay alive and survive in dusty environments. And if that dust gets dislodged once the animals are back in the housing, that can just lead to more contamination and recontamination. So while you've got the opportunity and there's no animals present, try and remove as much of the dust as possible.

Then you want to look at removing any movable items, any equipment that can physically be removed from the pig pens. So feeders, drinkers, cleaning tools. And the idea is if you're removing these, you're, you can clean these separately.

You can also inspect them at the same time to check for damage. And feeders, especially, are a prime place for rodents, especially mice, to build houses underneath. So you're seeing some of the pictures on the screen, hopefully, we have found where we've removed feeders, there's actually a whole colony of mice that have taken up residence underneath it.

So by removing the items when you go through your cleaning process, you're helping to identify if you have a problem and also help remove that at the same time. In removing as much equipment as possible, it also allows you to look at the structure of the house itself, to check the walls for damage, to check the floors for damage. All the bits that need replacing again, while the while the building's empty, you, what, what maintenance can you do?

And just taking out as much as possible really allows you to to see that nicely. And then also at the dry cleaning stage, while you're examining the building, you want to make sure that you isolate the electrics, especially before you go in and do a wet clean, you want to make sure that they're all nice and safe. And again, at this time, it's also the time to look at cleaning and disinfecting the water system.

So this should include the header tank and the philtres using a recommended product. It's also important to note that if you're trying to clean and disinfect a water system that uses nipple drinkers, and if they haven't been cleaned recently or if there has been a build up of biofilms within the water line, this can be a point when the nipple drinkers will get blocked. So you do know then need to remember that when you repopulate the house to make sure that the, the water is actually flowing through the the drinkers successfully.

Then once you've done your dry clean and you're happy that the, the building looks as clean as you think you can get it to that stage. And then we can go on and do a wet clean. So to wet clean, you're looking to soak the room with water, and including a detergent where, especially where you know you've got greasy areas and you know it's going to be difficult to get rid of some of the, the grease, especially from wall areas where pigs have rubbed up against.

You want to look to try and do this as soon as possible after the pigs have been removed, because the longer you leave it, the more drying out time the, the muck has, and that makes it more difficult to remove from the different surfaces. They apply a detergent to the whole house, so the detergent helps to improve the efficiency of the washing process, and it also helps to reduce the time needed for pressure washing. So in order to do this successfully, you want to soak all of the surfaces, so ceilings, walls, floors, any fixed equipment that you weren't able to remove.

With a detergent using low pressure, alternatively, you can use a foam or a gel cleaner if that's either what you've been recommended to use or what you prefer to use. And then one of the key steps is to allow it to soak for at least 30 minutes. Ideally, you want this time to be an overnight soak, because it just allows the water and the detergent to really get into any organic matter that's dried on and to loosen it, so it will make the pressure washing process a lot easier.

Work from top to bottom, so ceiling, walls, floors, and try and avoid splashing areas that you've already cleaned, because if you're splashing where you've already cleaned, you're basically recontaminating, that area again. Try and pay attention to areas that are particularly out of sight or that might be hard to reach, because they're likely to have muck built up behind them or on top of them and just sort of spraying around the, the bits that are easy to see means you're going to miss some of these. Then you follow this with a pressure wash, with a hot pressure wash, so you want water temperature to be at least 70 °C.

If your pressure washer doesn't have the option of using hot water, we'd really recommend that you look to see whether this is something you can invest in, because bacteria can only survive within a certain temperature range. And if you're exposing them to 70 degrees plus, then you're, you're doing a lot of the work. That you're then expecting in, in rather than expecting the the detergent and disinfectants to kill the bacteria, you've actually reduced the bacterial load there and then just by using hot water.

And then once you've, once you've completed this cleaning process, inspect it, have a look. You, you can visually see whether something's clean or not, or whether it's cleaner than it was before you started. And if you want to be really thorough, you can take, like a clean handkerchief or a clean piece of material and actually wipe the surfaces and see how mucky they still are and see whether you're happy with that.

Especially if you've paid for a contract company to come in. And do the cleaning for you. You've paid them.

Are you happy with the service they provided at that stage? And if you're not, challenge it, ask them to repeat it, check the, the difficult to reach areas have actually been cleaned to the standard that you think's appropriate. Then when it comes to rinsing down, generally making sure that the, the, the wash water doesn't recontaminate other areas of the farm, that it's going into an appropriate area and then allow the, the pig pen or the pig house to dry.

This is something I'm going to come back to a few times. Drying is quite a key stage, in the cleaning process. Again, once you've cleaned the pig house, this is giving you the opportunity to look for damage, look for any areas that need repairing before you, you're thinking about putting animals back in.

And then remembering that any equipment that can't be pressure washed, so maybe creep lamps, they need to be cleaned by hand and again cleaned thoroughly. So I've mentioned drying a couple of times, but why is drying important? So bacteria and viruses, I've said, they can, can persist in dry, dusty environments, but they, they grow and survive best in wet environments.

So if you're allowing surfaces to dry, then you're again reducing the bacterial load within that house before you're, you're putting animals back in there. Now, ideally, a 5 to 7 day drying time can reduce the bacterial load by 10-fold. Now, we know this isn't generally practical on a on a working farm, so we usually recommend a minimum of 24 hours drying time is hopefully achievable and will give you some level of reduction in terms of bacterial load.

So we can see there's obviously there's a need for watching down thoroughly and. And making sure that we're doing, doing a good job with cleaning, but what do we actually gain from this extra labour and time? Because it does take more time and it does take more labour in order to do this properly.

So this graph illustrates some work that was carried out by a Danish group, and they were looking at partial cleaning and total cleaning that had been carried out in pig pens. So the partial cleaning just included a wash down without detergents, whereas the total cleaning included all of the steps that I've just covered. So the total cleaning of the building, so the, the lighter green column on the chart resulted in a daily weight, live weight gain of 51 grammes or more in the pigs, compared to those that were only in the partially cleaned pens.

So hopefully this kind of, it, it's showing that that there is a, a benefit to the pigs as well. It's not just that the houses look cleaner, there's actually some positive effect that's coming through on the pigs themselves. And then just going on, so the same group, also looked at the percentage of pigs that were treated with medication and the percentage of mortality.

So again, pigs that have been kept in the partially cleaned buildings versus the pigs that have been kept in the totally cleaned buildings. There is a lower mortality rate in the pigs that are being kept in the totally clean buildings, and there's a lower percentage that need required treatment with antibiotics. So again, that's going to, it's having a benefit on the pigs.

It's also having a financial benefit if you're not having to use antibiotics in a lot of the animals. So hopefully it highlights the benefits of taking the extra time to clean properly. It does actually have a positive impact on the pigs and the outcome, .

Of them But why clean the whole building? Obviously, the pigs generally only touch the floor and the wall areas within their own, within their own pig pen. But what whatever's present in the building as a whole can have a long term stimulation of the immune system.

And this isn't necessarily a positive stimulation of the immune system. So within the the house itself, so we've mentioned dust, especially, dusts made up of skin particles, feed particles, faecal matter. And these often don't show any signs of disease in the pigs, and they're often overlooked, but they can result in the building itself becoming pig sick.

So every day the pig's immunity is put under a challenge by each of these different . Combinations and it just leads leads to an overall sort of subclinical infection within the pigs cells. They just don't perform as well as we'd expect them to.

And pigs faced with this challenge generally tend to eat less, so they're growing more slowly. So they need more feed in order to, to achieve the weight gain required in order to go to slaughter, and they actually lay down less lean meat. So doing a full building clean actually has a lot more positive effect on the overall health of the pigs themselves.

The same team also found that continual pig flow, with little or no cleaning also affected the pig's performance. So leaving the pen, moving pigs around the building and never cleaning it, or very rarely cleaning it was found to have a negative effect on the pigs. So this graph again, .

Just illustrates to the, the effects of a high immune challenge, . Sorry, so the, the high immune challenge is the, the dark green column where pigs were in a building that wasn't cleaned or very rarely cleaned compared to the . The peaks That were where they kept in a building that were cleaned more regularly.

And the daily live weight gain was reduced by nearly 200 grammes by pigs that were receiving a high immune challenge, so we were in the dirty pens all of the time. So again, having a negative effect on, on the, the time it takes them to reach slaughter weight. So some of the key requirements, is basically successful cleaning does take time.

But hopefully, from what we've, what I've covered in this evening, I've sort of shown some of the benefits of actually using that time successfully and and making a good job of it. Most farmers do a reasonable job of cleaning in the farrowing houses and wiener houses, but this does usually delay infection until the pigs are closer to the finishing stage. So if you're doing a, looking at cleaning the, your pig farm and to make sure that the finishing houses are included in this regular cleaning routine, and this should have a beneficial effect on the pigs themselves as they come up to slaughter weight.

Making sure that you fully saturate all of the surfaces, especially feeders and drinkers, because this is places where you're, if especially the feeder, you, you've added nutrients, so bacteria, especially salmonella can multiply quite happily. And don't forget to regularly sanitise inside of the water lines too, because they can harbour, biofilms, which can cause more problems, and that's something Claire's going to go on and talk about in a few minutes. Becky, thank you very much.

That was, that was so insightful. I mean, we all know about cleaning, but those clear steps that you've given us, were just amazing. And, and I, I mean, I, I would never have guessed that there was such a, an immense difference that it made to the pigs of, of growth and everything else.

So that's really, really fabulous. Thank you for that. Folks, if you've got any questions, please remember just, roll your mouse over the screen.

Pop up that Q&A box, type it in there, and we will hold those over to the end. So the second part of our presentation tonight is being done by Claire Osler, and she is a PhD student at the University of Surrey, based at the Animal and Plant Health Agency. She's beginning the 3rd year of her PhD studies on biofilm formation.

And the control methods of salmonella strains relevant to the long-term persistence in poultry and pig farms, hatcheries, and animal feed mills. Claire, it's over to you. Thank you, Bruce.

So this evening, I'm focused on just one aspect that affects the icicity of cleaning disinfection farm, which is biofilm formation. So I'm gonna do this by answering four main questions, which are what are biofilms, where do we find them? How do they cause problems for us when we're cleaning disinfection, and how does cleaning before disinfection help with biofilm control?

So to start with, let's define a biofilm. So biofilm is a group of bacteria that's attached to a surface and enclosed in a self-produced protective mesh, which we call the exopolysaccharide matrix or the EPS matrix. Biofilm formation helps bacteria to survive in harsh environmental conditions, and usually they contain more than one type of bacteria.

And this could include bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses such as salmonella or E. Coli. We find biofilms in the environment where we have bacteria, moisture, and organic matter.

However, some bacteria such as salmonella are also able to form biofilms where there's little or no moisture in the environment, such as in feed mills. By form formation on surfaces is quite complex, but briefly, it involves the attachment of bacteria in the environment to a surface. And how well this bacteria attaches depends on several factors, but one of them is the type of surface.

So biofilms form more readily on surfaces such as plastic than they do on surfaces such as glass and stainless steel, although they're still able to form on the surfaces. Over time, more, more bacteria are, added to this biofilm, and after about 10 days, it matures. After this, you may get some bacteria from the biofilm being released back into the environment where they can go and touch to new surfaces and form more biofilms, hence making the problem worse.

In the farm and food production environments, there's many places where we can form find biofilms. One of the most commonly common areas is the inside of pipes or drinking systems. Other areas we find that our risk of biofilm formation are the inside of machinery.

Such as the inside of macerators, which are difficult to clean, as they're difficult to access, and they're exposed to lots of organic matter, such as eggshells, which may also be contaminated by bacteria, which makes this a really good home for biofilms to form. You also find that external surfaces are also at risk of biofilm formation. So this can include surfaces such as tools, as floors, walls, especially if you're unable to clean them frequently.

It's also important to know that even if a surface looks clean, it may still be covered in a biofilm. This is because you can't see, biofilms with your naked eye, but you can see biofilm, biofouling, which suggests a biofilm is present. So for instance, here, where you biofoulling is a term that includes all of the organic matter that becomes trapped, in the biofilm from the environment.

So the main problem with biofilms is that the bacteria within them are protected from environmental conditions, but also most problematically for us is they're protected from biocides such as disinfectants. It's studies have found that bacteria and biofilms can be up to 1000 times more tolerant to commonly used disinfectants than bacteria that aren't in a biofilm. This means that even after disinfection, There may still be bacteria alive, which then can go on and recontaminate the area you've just cleaned and disinfected.

And then infect your next group of animals. Another problem is that biofilms act as a physical barrier in the surface, and the longer the biofilm is present, the more bacteria and organic matter it contains and the thicker it becomes. And this means if a biofilm is left to form for a long period of time on a surface, it's very, very difficult to remove.

And eventually it could block pipes in feed and water systems, which causes just another problem. When we're trying to remove a biofilm from a surface using cleaning, there's two main aims. The first aim is to disrupt the structure of the biofilm by breaking down that protective EPS matrix that surrounds it.

By doing this, we allow the disinfectant to be able to reach inside the biofilm and kill the bacteria within more easily. The second aim is to physically remove the bi form from the surface. And any of that EPS EPS matrix that remains, because if we don't do this, it's more, it's easier for bacteria to attach to the surface again and then you end up with biofils forming again.

There's many ways to clean the surface, but it's important that the cleaning's thorough and that you remove any visible signs of biofouling, so you know that you have a chance of removing that biofilm. If this doesn't happen, the biofilm could still be present on your surface, which means that your disinfectant may not work as well as it should. It's also important to try and not scratch the surfaces, as this will create crevices where bacteria and biofilms like to like to live.

The most important method for trying to get rid of your biofilms is to use mechanical action. So this is, this is physically breaking down the EPS matrix and removes the biofilm off the surface. So it doesn't matter whether you do this by sort of scraping, pressure washing or manual scrubbing.

It all has the same effect on the biofilm. It's just whatever method is most suitable for your area. Another method to use is disinfectants.

These work a bit differently, and they break down the organic matter on the surface, but also weaken the attachment between the biofilm and and the surface, which means that it's easier for this biofilm to be physically removed. Ideally, we should carry out cleaning as frequently as possible. This is because cleaning interrupts the formation of biofilms on the surface.

Regular cleaning also removes organic matter and non-attached bacteria from the surface, which will help prevent bioforms forming in the first place. The longer the duration in between cleaning intervals, the more biofilm can form, the more strongly it will attach to the surface, and so it'll be more difficult for you to remove when you come round to actually cleaning it. Also be aware that if you're not able to clean areas regularly, those areas will probably need more intensive cleaning in order to remove that biofilm than areas that you clean on a regular basis.

So just to summarise, bioforms are communities of bacteria enclosing a protective matrix that's attached to a surface. We can find them in many different places in the farm environment on many different surfaces. They're problematic because they, because bacteria and biofilms show tolerance to commonly used disinfectants, and the longer the biofilm has the chance to form the surface, the more difficult it will be for us to remove.

Therefore, the best way to deal with them is to use mechanical cleaning methods and chemical detergents, and along with regular cleaning, and this will make sure that you have the best chance of removing any biofilms from your surface. So obviously, after cleaning comes disinfectants. So the next second webinar will be held on the 17th of July and it's titled Disinfectant, Disinfection, How to choose the Right Product and Best practise.

Thanks, Claire. That was great. I, I never realised that biofilms build up as quickly as what they do.

And I suppose if the water is hard, that makes them build up even quicker. Yes, they do build up very quickly, on a surface, and it can take sort of a matter of sort of days for that biofilm to start forming, and the longer it's left, the the the more that biofilm will grow on the surface and the more difficult it's going to be removed, be able to remove in the end. Yeah, can, can biofilms always be removed with high pressure hoses and that sort of thing?

Cause I'm thinking if you've got something that's really caked on, you were saying don't scratch the surfaces. But the temptation surely will always be there to give it a good scratch to get it off. Yes, it's, it's important to just sort of choose the best method for your surface.

So you might have to use several different methods. You might have to use pressure washing, you might have to try sort of scrubbing it with a brush that doesn't scratch the surface so much. Right.

Right. Becky, we've got a question that came in while you were talking. Are you back with us?

Yeah, great. Zan wants to know, during the CD process, most farmers moved to a disinfectant wash rather than applying a detergent prior to disinfection. Is there a type of disinfectant that is more effective in the presence of organic matter?

And also, what would be your preferred choice of disinfection? Let's say your top three for the CND process when, when you're infected with salmonella. OK, yeah, thank you for those questions.

So, using a disinfectant wash, I know, I know some farmers do do that, rather than using detergents. I think it depends on the type of farm and the type of type of cleaning you're trying to do. So a detergent will actually act to sort of to break up the organic matter itself, especially if you've got grease problems.

So the detergents are designed to try and remove the organic matter. Whereas using a disinfectant, that the disinfectants designed to kill the microorganisms that are present and help with disease control. So using a disinfectant in your wash water rather than a detergent might not help you clean the building as well as you need to.

But I do understand that for some disease control purposes, people will put a disinfectant through the wash water at the same time. The actual question that you'd asked there, all disinfectants struggle when you add lots of organic matter, especially if you're talking about something organic matter on the level of a pig farm. So, which is why we say removing as much organic matter as possible prior to disinfection.

Is, is always going to be beneficial. There are some disinfectants that can cope with organic matter better than others. We'd usually sort of say the, the chlorochreool based ones tend to cope a bit better with organic matter.

These are quite harsh, but again, if, if you haven't removed the majority organic matter, that muck is just going to absorb the disinfectant, and it won't have the impact that you want it to. And it can actually result in almost wasting money, because disinfectants are expensive. And if you If you don't do a good job of cleaning first, which is kind of what we're trying to get across with this first webinar, then actually just putting a disinfectant onto all of that muck is, is not going to do what you want it to, and it's basically wasting quite a lot of money.

So going on to the second part, so preferred choice of disinfectant on the top three tips. Maybe the, the top three tips are probably the, the best ones to go with. The next webinar we're going to look at, will look more at the actual disinfectants themselves and some of the different active components and how they work, and why different ones are suitable to different situations.

But again, it's going back to things we've already covered, in this evening's webinar. So removing the organic matter is always going to be key because if you don't remove the, the challenge that's already there, then you're, you're setting yourself up to fail. If you're leaving salmonella present by leaving faecal material around, then, then you're not, you're not kind of tackling the problem.

. Allowing the building's time to dry once you've done the cleaning step. Again, it allows the, the, if you have, even if you've applied a detergent or a disinfectant at that stage, it allows it time to work. It allows the bacterial load to be reduced successfully.

And, and checking, you know, doing an inspection. So I'm kind of, I'm sticking more with the cleaning side at the minute. But yeah, I think checking that you're happy with the, the cleaning job that you've done before you put pigs back in.

And I know there's always the pressure of a quick turnaround so you can get animals back in, so you can keep the farm producing. But it is just, just making sure that you're happy with the, the job that has been done. .

I don't really want to touch too much on the, so the actual choice of disinfectants because we'll cover that next time, and we'll be able to put some, some good slides together to try and give you some guidance on that, but hopefully that answers those questions. Yeah, you'll have to come back on the 17th of July, as I say, Lauren, who wasn't with us tonight, will be with us then as well. And, I'm sure you'll get some amazing tips there.

And, I have no doubt that some of our sponsor High Souls products will also be featured there. Becky Claire, either or both of you, what about, the, the products that we use in households to try and remove biofilms like the limescale removal products? Would you, would you think that that would help you in cleaning out your, your water systems?

No, we've lost Becky. OK, yeah, there I probably wouldn't say use, I wouldn't recommend using household products. Again, because they're targeted at like what would a cleaner environments and what you'd find on the farm.

And there are a lot of products that are marketed and are available for use in things like water lines to try and remove biofilms from waterlines. So it is something that the, the disinfectant industry are aware of that does cause an issue. And there are products that have, have been developed and that are targeted to actually be able to do that.

Yeah, excellent. Sorry. That was really badly stated by me.

I didn't mean using household products. I meant, like we're told in our house, you've got to clean out your kettle and clean out your coffee machine and everything else. The, with limescale, I, you know, that obviously helps promote the biofilm's formation.

Yes, so a lot of farms will automatically put treatment through their, their drinking systems, as a, as a regular process in order to try and yet to try and keep down the, the buildup of, Yeah, any, anything from hard water and potential bacteria that are going through. Excellent, excellent. Well, folks, that's the end of tonight's webinar, short one because we didn't have our third presentation.

But, I promise you, we will have that for you on the 17th of July. So, just another word of thanks to High Soul, our sponsors. Remember, folks, let's support those that support us.

We couldn't be having this webinar if it wasn't for the proud and generous sponsorship of High Soul. So, let's look for their name when we start working with these products. And to Becky and Dawn, thank you both for your time tonight.

We really appreciate it and we look forward to seeing you on the 17th again. To Dawn, my controller in the background, thank you for everything tonight and from myself, it's goodnight.