Biosecurity, Protecting Our Communities

This time of year, is a great time to talk about biosecurity. So, what is biosecurity? It is the practices that the agriculture community put in place to minimize the spread of diseases. The people who care for livestock take pride in their herds and the health of those herds. 

We have several tools at our disposal to deal with disease outbreaks that are presented to our herds, but the best tool is mitigating the risk that the animals are exposed in the first place. This can be done by determining the different ways that animals could be exposed to diseases. 

First, it is important to clean and disinfect a farm or facility before new animals arrive. The animals that were previously housed in the facility could have been carrying a disease that the new herd has not been exposed to. By doing so you are ensuring that the animals enter a barn that is free of disease challenges. Animals could also be exposed to disease from contact with other animals. Most operations use a closed herd system. This means that all the animals arrive and depart the farm at the same time. Doing this ensures that all animals are the same age and have had similar health histories. This is often referred to as an all-in and all-out procedure. 

The next thing we focus on is the care giver. There are several ways for the caregiver to track diseases to the herd based on where they travel and who they come in contact with. It is a good practice to have a separate pair of shoes that gets worn to your barn where your animals are located that you don’t wear to places where other animals are housed. This helps prevent tracking any diseases from your farm and makes sure you aren’t carrying anything back with you. Keep vehicles clean, paying extra attention to areas you touch with your hands and your floor mats. Using a product like a disinfectant wipe or a spray disinfectant will prevent a lot of transfer. Practicing proper down time is also important. This means that you spend a certain amount of time away from any animals before encountering animals again. It is commonly suggested to wait a longer amount of time before coming in contact with breeding stock especially. 

The last thing to consider is having a standard disinfecting protocol for any tools, buckets, boots, gating etc. that you have used somewhere other than your farm. This could involve spraying everything down with a disinfectant solution and letting it sit for an amount of time before using the equipment again. 

All of these measures, together, can help keep your animals healthy and protect the agriculture communities in which we live.