The gravel crunches underneath her tires as Maddy Friend pulls up to the driveway for work. She punches in the secret four-digit employee code, which is changed every few weeks to secure the front gate. The large white buildings with no windows look intimidating from the outside. She parks her car and slips the blue plastic protective boot coverings onto her feet as she steps out, careful not to contaminate the ground as she exits her vehicle.

Now on the premises, she enters her second door code. Before she enters the secure workspace, she begins the process of changing her clothes to sanitize herself and her belongings. Friend doesn’t work at a top-secret military agency or a covert medical testing facility. She works at a commercial pig farm.
Her mission here? Prevent the spread of disease to protect pigs on her farm and across the country. These seemingly absurd steps are measures of biosecurity used to protect not only the pigs housed on the farm, but also consumers and the global pork supply. Biosecurity is a set of preventative measures designed to ensure disease does not enter or leave a certain location.
“Pigs’ immune systems are not great,” Friend said. “Making sure we do everything we can to keep diseases out of the farm and keep pigs safe is super important.”
There are many measures put in place by pig farms to ensure their farms are biosecure, but it is nearly impossible to entirely prevent disease spread. Any step in the plan can have risks and shortcomings.
“We like to think of it as the Swiss cheese method,” Friend said. “There’s lots of steps to biosecurity and none of the steps are perfect. But if you stack all these methods on top of each other, hopefully we can block all the holes and not let anything through.”

SHOWER-IN, SHOWER-OUT

One method of biosecurity implemented in many large commercial farms is the “shower-in, shower-out” protocol. This involves taking a total shower at the facility as you enter and exit the barns.
“To prepare to enter the clean side of the farm, that involves stepping into the showers,” Friend said. “They’re stocked with shampoo and body wash; it’s not high quality so that’s interesting, but it gets the job done.”
After showering, Friend ditches her company-issued towel on the dirty side of the shower and steps into the clean side. She sanitizes her hands and changes into scrubs, overalls or another change of clothes, retrieving her personal items from the ultraviolet radiation chamber.
The UV chamber isn’t in all farms. However, many farmers have started implementing them in their sow barns. This chamber is a way for workers to bring in lunches, drinks and other personal items that can’t be washed in a shower. The radiation in the chamber removes any type of bacteria, making it safe for the clean side.
“Once you’re in the farm, you’re basically locked in until you shower out,” Friend said.

Another important aspect of biosecurity is personal protective equipment. PPE is clean, protective clothing used to prevent contamination and disease spread in the commercial pig farm. Types of PPE include boot coverings, overalls, scrubs, masks and other sterile clothing.
“It’s similar to what doctors wear,” Friend said. “It keeps the patients, or pigs in this case, safe. And it also keeps you safe. Just like at a hospital, you wouldn’t want to introduce one disease to another patient.”
PPE is not the most comfortable. The stiff plastic, scratchy material and unflattering fit can make you wish you had your own clothes.
“It feels a little strange at first,” Friend said. “It’s definitely different having to re-get ready in the morning. But I know I’m wearing it to protect myself and the pigs.”

INSIDE THE FACILITY

Once completely sanitized and changed into your new outfit for the day, it is time to walk into the pig barn. This can be very eye-opening for the first time.
Besides the occasional whiff of ammonia and manure from the pit used to store waste underneath the barns, the overwhelming smell coming from inside the barn is sanitation and bleach.
Through the barn doors, a sea of pink greets you. The pigs lay lazily under misters, munching on food and curiously sniffing their neighbors. Fans buzz overhead, regulating the temperature with sensors located all around the barn. Most of the pigs are asleep and uninterested in your arrival.
A few perk up, thinking it is feeding time. This causes a small roar of grunts and squeals before they lose interest and take a big drink from the automatic waterers.
Pigs in these barns are cared for daily by farmers. They look for signs of sickness like lack of movement, coughing, decreased water or feed intake and lethargy. They also keep an eye out for any injuries. This takes an experienced and careful eye.

No one has more experience than someone who grew up in a family-owned commercial operation like Mason Springer did. Springer is a fourth-generation pig farmer from Kansas who knows the importance of strict biosecurity methods used for pigs in commercial settings.
“Pigs are kept so much closer together, with lots of snout touching and mingling,” Springer said. “They love to mingle, lick and just get into anything so there’s a big chance of disease spread; biosecurity is really important there.”
On their farm, personal protection and sanitation are not the only safety measures protecting pigs from disease. They also implement strict powerwashing routines to ensure barns are clean before new pigs enter.
“One of my first jobs was sweeping the alleys on the weekend when I was 8 or 9 years old,” Springer said. “When I was older, I moved onto learning how to power wash. Which is still one of my least favorite jobs; I don’t think anyone enjoys that.”
While it might not be enjoyable, the intensive powerwashing schedule is vital to their biosecurity plan.
“After we powerwash, we spray disinfectant to kill the rest of the diseases,” Springer said. “We’ve also started spraying lye to kill down some of the ammonia fumes the pigs produce. Just doing those things really mitigates disease spread.”
After cleaning the barn, farrowing, feeding or completing whatever other daily task is at hand, the checklist is almost complete. But preparing to exit the biosecure space is just as important leaving for the day as it was coming in. Every employee’s last chore is to shower on the way out.
As Friend heads back to the showers, now covered in manure and smelling like a pig, she’s still technically on the clean side of the farm. Even though she looked much tidier coming in the driveway this morning, she prepares to enter the dirty side, the outside world. She showers out, changes into her own comfortable clothes and leaves the property with any trace of the pigs
behind her. This biosecurity plan kept the pigs, herself and the outside world safe from the spread of disease.