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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Application of nanoparticles for controlling disease-causing microorganisms in pig barns
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on December 18, 2015
Laboratory-scale tests conducted to evaluate the effect of various types of commercially-available nanoparticles on the levels of microorganisms commonly encountered in swine barn environments showed Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles had the highest antimicrobial efficacy among all the nanoparticles tested. Further experiments carried out in the barn indicated that partial filtration of barn air with a filter loaded with ZnO nanoparticles in the ventilation recirculation system achieved reduction in bioaerosol levels at the animal- and human-occupied zones. During sanitation, 10 mg/mL of ZnO nanoparticle solution sprayed on concrete pen floor surfaces showed significant decrease in total bacterial counts on surfaces four hours after application. Microbial population, however, started to increase after new nursery pigs were brought into the room.