The Maschhoffs company is building a state-of-the-art truck
wash for its carriers in Jacksonville, Ill., to stop the spread of Porcine
Epidemic Diarrhea virus.
The truck wash will accommodate about 25 drivers for
contract truck companies using the facility weekly, as they pick up hogs from
The Maschhoffs’ producers across central and southern Illinois and deliver them
to a Cargill facility in Beardstown, Ill., for processing.
It will have three bays to wash and disinfect each trailer.
Three additional bays are being constructed to bake each trailer, heading the
trailer’s surface to 160 degrees F, maintaining that temperature for 10 minutes
to kill any virus or microbes.
Heretofore, The Maschhoffs’ truckers have been washing the
trailers at public truck washes.
The big rig facility is expected to have 15 employees
serving 10 contract carriers.
Ontario has been warning truckers to avoid U.S. truck washes
because they have been found to be contaminated with PED and a source to
spread, rather than eliminate, the virus.
The Ontario Pork Industry Council also recently issued an advisory about the importance of thoroughly cleaning, washing and disinfecting trucks after it identified hog transport as the likely reason for several recent outbreaks.
