Livestock: May 2002

To most of us, the term "biosecurity" means the mechanisms put in place by the United States Department of Agriculture — including its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and Food Safety Inspection Service — and state departments of agriculture that protect the livestock industry against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

These protective "firewalls" include legislation, inspection, testing, reporting and education, and so far have helped protect us from the direct effects of these two devastating foreign animal diseases.

The livestock industry's biosecurity, however, is not the sole responsibility of the federal and state governments. It encompasses all entities related to animal agriculture: producers, veterinarians, sale barn personnel, feedlot pen riders, etc. It is our individual responsibility to be educated on disease prevention, identification, treatment and containment — and to apply that knowledge everywhere we are involved, right down to our own farms.

Producers should consider designing and implementing their own individual farm biosecurity policies. Such policies should address not only BSE and FMD, but also the multitude of other diseases that cause millions of dollars in losses each year: bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), Johne's disease, tuberculosis, brucellosis, anaplasmosis and the bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex, to name a few. This may sound like a restrictive, formidable task, but in reality we've all had some kind of "firewall" in place all along. We just didn't call it that.

It's time to strengthen and formalize this aspect of prudent management — put it in writing and call it a "Biosecurity Plan" to give it the prominence it needs. It is potentially more important than any other part of an operation. 

Here is a partial list of management practices to consider as a starting place when structuring your own biosecurity plan. Customize your operation's plan, and involve your veterinarian in all steps.

• Design a sound herd health program with your veterinarian, and review it annually. This is the first line of defense against disease.
• Identify and eliminate sources of animal stress in your operation. Stress lowers immunity, making animals more susceptible to disease.
• Enhance sanitation of the animals' environment. Calving areas, feeders, troughs, water sources, etc., can all be sources of disease.
• Isolate sick animals immediately, diagnose the disease quickly, and treat it appropriately. Most diseases we deal with are moderately to highly contagious.
• Have your veterinarian perform a necropsy on all dead animals. Knowing the disease or diseases you are dealing with makes treatment and containment more effective and economical.
• Burn or bury dead animals as quickly as possible. For many diseases, exposed dead animals remain a source of infection for some time.
• Use sterile techniques in all management practices. Many diseases (e.g. anaplasmosis) can be transmitted from one animal to the next via needles, dehorners, castration tools, etc.
• Observe livestock as often as possible. Changes in body condition, disposition, behavior, etc., can signal the onset of a disease event.
• Isolate new herd additions for 30 to 60 days. This allows for detection of diseases that may have been developing in the animal before delivery.
• Test new herd additions for selected diseases. Not all problem diseases will show up during a 30- to 60-day isolation period (e.g., brucellosis, BVD and Johne's disease).
• Maintain a record of the source, date and identification of all herd additions. Be able to relate disease problems to the source of those animals.
• Control (as much as possible) insect pests, rodents, birds, wildlife, stray animals and across-fence contact with neighboring animals. All of these can be sources of disease.

A herd biosecurity plan is a way to contribute to the safety of the industry as a whole and to protect our own operations. Give it serious consideration.