It cuts costs and beats bird flu virus

NST: IPOH: A new way to disinfect people after visits to livestock farms could save the industry and the Veterinary Services Department millions of ringgit.
The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), developed by the Perak Veterinary Services Department, uses less disinfectant and fewer people to operate it.
It also cuts down on the amount of money spent on protective clothing.
Assistant veterinary officer A. Muniandy, one of the two who developed the PPE, said the equipment could save up to RM6 million a year in disinfectant costs for the poultry industry.
Muniandy told the New Straits Times that the PPE was effective in preventing the spread of the bird flu virus between farms and from animals to humans.
"The PPE uses a shower mist system which disinfects from head to toe without excessively wetting the protective gear and clothing worn underneath. The old pump-and-spray method was not that effective."
Muniandy and fellow assistant veterinary officer Bakhtir Manap built the device in seven months for less than RM7,000.
The prototype has won praise from Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority. But the best news for the two came from the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia, which told them their prototype was the first of its kind in the world.
Made up of stainless steel ducts, a motor and a two horse-power compressor, it took two veterinary workers less than two minutes to take the device apart and put it back together.
According to Muniandy, the department uses nine litres of disinfectant to carry out sampling at three poultry farms with the old method. But with the new equipment, the same amount can be used for eight farms.
The number of people on each team visiting the farms can also be reduced because they don’t need to carry cumbersome equipment and bottles of disinfectant.
At present, PPE is used by state veterinary officers when they visit the 37 duck farms accredited by the Singapore Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority to obtain samples for H5N1 testing.
Muniandy said the Veterinary Services Department had saved up to RM900 on each operation which involved visits to eight farms.
"With the mobile disinfectant unit, each operation costs the department RM100. It costs RM1,000 with the old method."