Feedstuffs in Focus
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Feedstuffs in Focus
Unveiling biofilm threats: Safeguarding swine health and boosting farm efficiency
This episode explores the critical issue of biofilms in waterlines and their hidden impact on swine health and productivity. Understanding biofilms can help producers implement better management practices, ensuring optimal water quality and animal welfare.
• Dr. Gabi Doughan of the Swine Medicine Education Center discusses her research on waterline biofilms in swine operations
• Biofilms pose significant health risks for pigs
• Importance of testing both source and in-barn water for pathogens
• Regular cleaning and maintenance practices for water systems are essential
• Beyond health, managing biofilms can improve overall production metrics
• Need for ongoing research to refine management strategies in the swine industry
This episode is brought to you by Pharmgate Animal Health, a growing business that puts livestock first. Pharmgate provides a proven portfolio of technically supported, high-quality products that are the foundation of custom herd health protocols. By offering multiple options for active ingredients, concentrations, and administration routes, Pharmgate provides you with choices to fit your needs backed by a team with technical expertise to get the results you want.
Are biofilms lurking in your barn's water lines. When not properly managed and cleaned, your lines might develop biofilms that can negatively impact the health and performance of your pigs. Welcome to Feedstuffs in Focus, our podcast taking a look at the big issues affecting the livestock, poultry grain and animal feed industries. I'm your host, sarah Muirhead. This episode is brought to you by Farmgate Animal Health, a growing business that puts livestock first. Farmgate provides a proven portfolio of technically supported, high-quality products that are the foundation of custom herd health protocols. By offering multiple options for active ingredients, concentrations and administration routes, farmgate provides you with choices to fit your needs, backed by a team with technical expertise to get the results that you want. Joining us today to talk about waterline biology and her recent research trial is Dr Gabby Dorn, postdoctoral Research Associate at Iowa State University's Swine Medicine Education Center. Let's start by having you tell us about your role at SMEC and your experience in swine medicine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm a veterinarian. I graduated from vet school in 2021 from Iowa State, and then I started at the Swine Medicine Education Center, otherwise known as SMEC, at Iowa State, and so I've been here ever since graduating vet school and I've been working on my master's and PhD in waterline ecology type of topics, waterline biosecurity, those types of things. So happy to be here today, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for joining us. So you talk about waterlines. That, of course, leads into the whole topic of biofilms. What is the concern around waterline biofilms, and how do you go about characterizing those in the context of a hog production operation?
Speaker 2:So waterline biofilms are really? They are like biofilms in that they are composed of a lot of different substances, so the primary one is what's called an EPS, and so really, what that matrix is, it's slime, it's a slime layer that protects the bacteria and other organisms. We know that biofilms can incorporate viruses, fungi, yeast, algae and sometimes even protozoa into the biofilm, and then there's other nutrients and other things that are accumulated in there. So it's a really complex ecosystem of organisms, this slime layer, otherwise known as EPS of organisms, this slime layer otherwise known as EPS, and so it's this kind of evolving mosaic, is what I would say. Is it changes over time? It's not, you know, it can be a multiple species of bacteria. It often is multiple species of bacteria, and so really the concern around these biofilms in water lines is that they can kind of come from two different sources, and so the first source is through the water itself. So these bacteria can come into water lines, they can adhere to the pipe surfaces and then they can create this biofilm because our water lines are great, you know sources for like biofilm growth really, and that kind of leads to my second point is that we have open systems in our farms so we can have bacteria enter in through the water medicator or, you know, they can grow around the water nipples and kind of around the wet to dry feeder area, and so those organisms can get seeded into the system and then they can establish and, furthermore, can get seeded into the system and then they can establish and furthermore our water systems are medicated so we can put electrolytes through, we can put medications, vaccines, which can also potentially seed some bacteria into that biofilm as well. So there's a lot of nutrients that are in that environment that really makes biofilms thrive.
Speaker 2:And so, as far as characterization, we've done a lot of research to try to understand okay, biofilms are in water lines, are they posing a health to swine? You know, posing a threat to swine health, biosecurity, you know antimicrobial stewardship, all of those types of things. And so when we looked at 16S kind of sequencing to identify the organisms in there, we found that at the six sites that we had tested, those biofilms were very unique to the site. And so that's kind of something new.
Speaker 2:You know we were thinking in a water environment. You know maybe some things are different, but actually we saw that, you know, the sites were, you know, visually very different from one another as far as the diversity and the organisms that were present there, and so the other thing is that biofilms can grow back, and they can grow very quickly. So we did a waterline cleaning and disinfection event one time. We found that biofilms actually regrew back 72 hours after that waterline cleaning and disinfection event, and so they grow back very, very fast so they can reestablish themselves and so they can, yeah, potentially cause problems because of their presence there.
Speaker 1:In all these factors, that is very quick to grow back. I didn't think it would be that quick. And of course it's affecting water quality overall, right, when you've got biofilms, and that has to have an impact on pig health, as you kind of mentioned, and also on the equipment itself, right, it's probably not the best thing for the equipment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. So water quality can be influenced by biofilms and really the big component is that biofilms when they mature they can actually disperse and shed organisms into the bulk water, and so we found that water in rooms is actually has a higher amount of coliforms, so coliform bacteria is actually has a higher amount of coliforms, so coliform bacteria. And occasionally on the farms that did have E coli, they had higher E coli counts in the rooms than they did at the well, and so the bacteria can actually come in at the well, but water quality is degraded in the farm actually because those biofilms are shedding and putting their organisms into the bulk water and so ultimately that affects the pig. Right, we don't have a lot of great research. A lot of it was done in the 1970s, and so they had kind of looked at what was the threshold of coliforms that would be a problem in pigs, and so it's kind of variable because younger pigs may be susceptible. It also depends on the organisms that are in the coliforms. But really the big things is that coliforms indicate that pathogens can live there and it also indicates that we need to do better as far as testing. So a lot of people will just test their well to understand what's going on with their water quality.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, we're not getting the full picture if we're not testing the water inside of the farm as well and in those rooms, right.
Speaker 2:And so you had mentioned that biofilms can also have a can be problematic to the equipment inside of the farm, and so how I've seen biofilms cause problems is that they can the mineral buildup that's with hard water and an increased pH as far as the water quality components, that can really act as a scaffolding and create these mineral buildups on the inside of these water lines and reduce pipe diameter, and so they incorporate with the biofilms, can reduce pipe diameter and that ultimately affects the amount of water that's getting to the pigs, right. And so then that can affect growth parameters and all that because they're not drinking as much, they're not going to be eating as much. Biofilms can also wear down the equipment through corrosion. So if you've got metal fixtures and other things like that, specific organisms can contribute to additional corrosion as well. So that's really how I see biofilms impacting the water system and you know water quality in general, you mentioned pathogens can be an issue.
Speaker 1:What about things like antimicrobial resistance? Can that be a concern and something that producers need to be aware of? That? Perhaps biofilms are, you know, a factor in all of that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so actually in one of the examples that we had.
Speaker 2:So one of the pathogens that we did find was an F18 E coli and that had toxin and adhesion genes, so meaning that it could be pathogenic to pigs and produce disease, and so that was actually identified through a mechanism that we were using to determine phenotypic resistance or the demonstration of resistance in the face of chlorotetracycline and lancamycin. And so we had found the C coli. It had grown on a drug-infused plate, a culture plate, and so it was resistant to chlorotetracycline and lancamycin. We also found over 3,900 antimicrobial resistance genes. So over the entire study and there were 184 unique genes associated with that we also found unique genes, you know, 100 genes that were kind of encoded for multiple drug resistance. So a specific integron would carry multiple antimicrobial resistance genes and can contribute to that. So we have seen antimicrobial resistance genes in these biofilms, because biofilms are a great spot for them to trade these resistance genes and then they're also using the genes and demonstrating this phenotypic resistance or resistance in the face of antibiotics as well which is very problematic, right, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fascinating. So now, in addition to all of this that we've talked about, you've done some recent research and uncovered a few things. How can these findings that you've made be applied to, kind of, the day-to-day operations of a hog facility?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. As far as day-to-day observations, I think the first thing is we just need to have general awareness that waterline biofilms can contribute to problems in health and microbial stewardship and potentially production as well. You know, really we've kind of taken for granted that, hey, we're providing water access to the pigs. You know that that's fine, we don't really need to be concerned about it. So I think just having a general awareness that this can be problematic is really the first step.
Speaker 2:The second piece is that you know there are a lot of actionable items that we can do because our water systems are open. We are administering medications and so making sure that we're using clean stock buckets, cleaning out water lines when we can flushing out the medicators after we, you know, administer a medication into the water line and then ultimately testing water more frequently so that we can determine what's in our water right and monitor it more closely. There's still a lot to learn in this area as far as, like, best practices. What can we do every day? How can we monitor it? And so we're really only getting started. There's a lot more research that needs to be done to keep this area of study moving.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned, the first step is to kind of recognize that biofilms are a problem. But how do you go about making that assessment? How can a producer say, hey, I do have an issue. Or I want to see if I have an issue, what's the process there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so oftentimes, you know, with E coli especially, we tend to notice that it's a site-specific problem. Every time these pigs come in we tend to see the same E coli kind of break, you know, over time, and it tends to be this like site-specific problem. So if you're seeing like site-specific health challenges, you know you're having plugged water nipples or you can even visually appreciate some. You know you're having plugged water nipples or you can even visually appreciate some. You know this kind of slime or mineral buildup on the inside, you can probably assume that, yeah, I may probably have a biofilm issue there. And so, really, biofilms are going to be in every waterline system. You know, as long as there's a water source, nutrients and bacteria, you're going to have biofilms. But sometimes they can be a little bit more problematic than others, right? Especially if they've got E coli in them. And so really, you know mechanisms that we can determine, like as far as testing is testing your water for coliforms. We know that biofilms will shed roughly 5% of their population in that water supply, like I had mentioned, and so we want to make sure that we're taking a clean sample, so using an alcohol swab on the end of the water line before you're taking your water sample. Or if you've got a metal kind of spigot, you can flame that and then take your water sample so that we're not getting that external contamination, and then testing for coliforms because you know they're going to shed them, we can detect. Hey, we got some biofilm going on here.
Speaker 2:You can also take waterline swabs as well and then send them into culture to try to enumerate biofilms, and there's a lot of different mechanisms on how to take those samples. And then there's also a mechanism through ATP swabs, and so this is kind of a new emerging technology, kind of in the swine industry. It's been used a lot in dairy and food and beverage industries. And so ATP is really the energy molecule of organisms, and so what it does is you swab it and then the technology will luminesce and so when it's interacting with that ATP, and so what that means is that it'll count how much ATP was in that sample, and so if there's organisms there, you're going to have a higher amount of ATP, Right. So that's another mechanism that's fairly easy and that would be a pen side test that you could do in order to determine how much was there. And there's waterline specific swabs for that technology.
Speaker 1:So what about the impact biofilms on a producer's bottom line?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's a, you know, we're just now recognizing that waterline biofilms can be an issue for pigs.
Speaker 2:We've kind of, like I mentioned, taken it for granted for some time, and so there's a lot of sparse, peer reviewed information surrounding that. But there are many anecdotal kind of stories that I've heard from the field and then there's also a few studies that have kind of indicated, yeah, there may be some, you know, potential benefits in trying to reduce biofilms and as far as these production parameters really, and so we have seen in some of these anecdotal cases, increased average daily gain, improved feed conversion rate, and then ultimately we know that in some sow farms that pelvic organ prolapses and mortalities associated with those were actually reduced when water was treated at that farm. So there are maybe some indicators that, hey, we need more research in this area so that we can further determine what's the return on investment for these particular disinfection practices and biofilm eliminations, especially in these young pigs and maybe in more susceptible pigs like a farrowing sow, those you know. We just need more research in this area to really get those hard numbers.
Speaker 1:So what about when it comes to managing and treatment for biofilms on the farm? What's your recommendation there? What do you tell producers?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So usually the best place to start is to start taking water samples. So taking water samples yearly and then ultimately looking at those coliforms to see, okay, are there some biofilm components here? The water testing will actually help you make decisions on what best chemistry is going to work best for your waterline cleaning and disinfection, for your waterline system right, and what your options are. And so ultimately you need to start with water testing.
Speaker 2:The second thing I recommend is cleaning in between turns and then ultimately, because biofilms grow back quickly, you need to have a continual disinfectant after that because we know that they can grow back and we need to keep on top of those biofilms. We know they're probably going to grow back because some of them, you know, are getting a little bit more resistant to particular chemistries and can grow in the face of them. But what we can do is we can just keep on top of that and kill anything that's being shed into the main water line, right and so and so having those cleanings in between turns can kind of restart that process, allow the continuous disinfectant to work better in those things. Now at the south foreign level, this gets a little bit tricky because those in-between turns cleanings that tends to be at a higher concentration and it's not really meant to be used while pigs are drinking the water. It actually can be, you know, have a lot of negative impacts if the pigs are drinking that water, right, so we definitely don't want to have that happen.
Speaker 2:So that causes some challenges when we continually have pigs on the farm at like a sow farm. So I tend to recommend you know you can clean water lines for four to six hours in the farrowing rooms, because we do have some downtime, hopefully, in between those farrowings, and so that may be a mechanism that we can use and then apply continual disinfectant, you know, as they go through farrowing and weaning, because those tend to be the more susceptible populations. If you do have specific water lines that are kind of down, you know, and you don't have pigs in them, you could try to disinfect those. But it does get a little bit more challenging just because the water systems aren't built for that in sow farms, right?
Speaker 1:now at least. So you mentioned testing once a year. Is there a certain time of year that's more optimal for that testing? Is it like when the temperatures are warmer outside, or have you seen any difference there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so water trace minerals tend to be pretty much the same over time, but you can see some changes. We have seen some changes happen, actually over a few days, but I think spring and fall is really the general recommendation either one of those and do a full water quality panel testing then. But your coliforms, you may need to do more frequent testing. So you know, like once a turn or multiple times a turn, depending on you know the different resources that you have available for that, just to keep monitoring that over time. So that's generally what you know I would recommend. Ultimately, we need more research to you know, help determine what are the best times. You know that would have the best impact or the best representation of what's truly happening in the farm. All of that is, you know, research that needs to be completed.
Speaker 1:So key takeaways to leave our audience with here today. What do you want producers to know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so really we're learning about water quality, waterline biofilms and how to develop these best practices for producers every day. So it is a rapidly evolving area of study, so stay tuned and ultimately, we just need to bring more awareness to this issue and realize that biofilms can have an impact on health, productivity and, ultimately, antimicrobial resistance as well.
Speaker 1:Sounds like down the road we're going to have to have you back for some updates.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be great. Thank you so much again for the opportunity to share today.
Speaker 1:This episode of Feedstuffs in Focus has been brought to you by Farmgate Animal Health, a growing business that puts livestock first. Farmgate provides a proven portfolio of technically supported, high-quality products that are the foundation of custom herd health protocols. By offering multiple options for active ingredients, concentrations and administration routes, farmgate provides you with choices to fit your needs, backed by a team with technical expertise to get the results that you want. I'm Sarah Muirhead and you have been listening to Feedstuffs In Focus. If you would like to hear more conversations about some of the big issues affecting the livestock, poultry grain and animal feed industries, subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast channel. Until next time, have a great day and thank you for listening.