42 It’s Farming. And It’s Better. Better Farming | August 2024 Livestock BIOSECURITY: BACK TO THE BASICS ‘Treat other operations how you want to be treated.’ By Emily Croft Livestock producers face concerns about easily transmissible and difficult-to-treat diseases that could impact their herds and flocks. Illness not only affects growth and production in livestock but also harms animal welfare, increases labour, and reduces profits. Strong biosecurity protocols are the easiest way to avoid the introduction of new livestock diseases. “Biosecurity is important for controlling movement of disease onto operations, off of operations, and within operations,” says Emma Cross, communications specialist for the Verified Beef Production Plus (VBP Plus) program, a voluntary third-party verification program for beef producers. “We recently had Leigh Rosengren, the chief veterinary officer for the Canadian Cattle Association, on our Simply Verified Beef podcast, and she gave a great message: Biosecurity is a mindset. It’s not a protocol or a checklist, but it should be a mindset of how to reduce risk whenever possible.” Producers should assess the points of risk across their farm and have measures in place to manage their vulnerable areas. “Disease can spread on people, on animals, through the air, many different ways,” says Dr. Ben Schlegel, managing partner and part of the veterinary team at Poultry Health Services. “If there’s one single area that’s the riskiest for transmission, it is whenever farmers are moving live birds. They should check on health status before the birds are moved into the new flock. It’s also a risk any time they are opening the barn up, whether that’s thinout loads, or when the feed truck comes. They should be careful with what’s going in and out of the barn.” What are the basics of biosecurity at home, when accepting visitors, and away from the farm? Staying healthy at home The easiest place to start implementing biosecurity to reduce the spread of disease is at your own farm. People, equipment, and supplies are frequently moving in and out of barns, yards, and pastures. If producers think of these movements as though they were also potentially carrying disease, they can identify risk areas that could be the focus of biosecurity protocols. “Key risk areas are any time there’s movement on or off the farm,” says Cross. “Think of movements such as people leaving, animals coming and going, inputs like feed, and outputs like sending cattle out. There’s also dealing with sick animals on and off the operation and managing vulnerable animals, like at calving time when there are naive animals around and they are extra Check the health status of the birds, chicks, or pullets you’re buying before adding to your flock. Farm & Food Care photo
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