Clean Barn Environments Protect Livestock and the Bottom Line

30 Aug 2023
Ho Yi Lau Regulatory Manager & Health/Safety Officer

Factory farms are essential to the consumer demands of the Canadian diet and food supply. Livestock are kept in highly regulated environments that allow for close monitoring and management, but this can also pose a challenge to cleanliness and proper sanitation.

The practice of factory farming can be an incubator for microbes that lead to expensive and unfortunate results. This is because, though the genetic diversity of farm animals gives them a natural resistance to disease, intensive livestock farming can increase contact and the odds of animals passing a viral or bacterial communicable disease to one another.

Take, for example, a 2023 tuberculosis outbreak in Saskatchewan that was linked back to a cow sold by a United States operator. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) informed the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) of a possible infection, and although only two cases were detected, 160 head of cattle were forced to be destroyed.

Farmers know that housing animals and poultry requires regular cleaning and disinfection of containment areas. Dairy, poultry, meat, and wool production depends on fast and reliable processes that maintain health compliance with as little disruption as possible. That’s why Chemprocide is Health Canada-approved for disinfection of Industrial Livestock Housing.

Clean Barns and Healthy Operations

Chemprocide is a clinically proven disinfectant, virucide, fungicide, and deodorizer approved for food production and processing and can be used to control microbial growth and transmission on hard surfaces. It is an economical industrial solution to sanitize and disinfect across a wide variety of industry sectors, including hospitals, and has recently been approved by Health Canada for disinfecting livestock barns. The use of Chemprocide mitigates the growth and spread of harmful microbes that may lead to substantial loss of farm stock and income.

Approved by Health Canada as a virucide, Chemprocide eliminates human coronavirus 229E and is likely to kill the SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — when applied to hard and dense surfaces after the surfaces have been cleaned. Unlike other industrial disinfectants, Chemprocide is odorless and does not bleach clothing or burn skin like oxidizing disinfectants when diluted. For operations with long periods between shutdowns for cleaning, it has twice the shelf life of other oxidizers on the market.

As a broad-spectrum disinfectant with a neutral pH, Chemprocide is non-corrosive to various surfaces commonly found in livestock facilities such as wood, corrugated plastic, stainless steel, aluminum, concrete, iron, glass, and polyurethane.

A certified fungicide, it controls mildew and mold on surfaces. When diluted according to the given specifications, it is commonly employed as a microbial control in footbaths and tool washes to prevent cross-contamination before entering packing houses and other production facilities.

Applying Chemprocide to Livestock Enclosures

Industry experts advise that certain Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) must be complied with to maximize cleaning and disinfecting efforts. These SOPs cut across local and multinational food production companies and are centered on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) standards. That’s why Pace Solutions devised the Pace ACBD System®.

Standing for “Always Clean Before Disinfecting,” the ACBD procedure starts with scrubbing the area with a recommended industrial cleaner such as Horti-Klor. Then thoroughly rinse the cleaner off with water and apply Chemprocide at recommended concentrations to kill target microbes.

Including Chemprocide in the cleaning process reduces downtime and the number of hours needed for disinfection. Operators need only 10 minutes of surface contact to accomplish a compliant housing environment when following recommended cleaning procedures. When observed closely, the ACBD procedure will protect livestock against surface-borne disease, reduce the need for extreme curative measures, and lower veterinary costs.

Healthy Livestock, Healthy Canadians

Most livestock farmers strive to maintain a high level of hygiene at their farms. They do it not just to adhere to Health Canada livestock stipulations but to curb the spread of infectious diseases, thereby ensuring public health and well-being.

Contact Pace Solutions and speak to an expert, then try Chemprocide in the next cleaning cycle to realize the benefits.