Biosecurity

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Biosecurity

• Dr. Pepi Leids
• NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets
• Division of Animal Industry

Modified by the GA Agriculture Education
Curriculum Office July 2002
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Why Should You Care?

• Infectious diseases cost dairy producers
  production and profit
• We are seeing increases in antibiotic resistance,
  making diseases harder to treat effectively
• We are in the FOOD business

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Why Should You Care?

• Many clinical diseases represent the tip of the
  iceberg
• Johnes 1 clinical 15 - 25 subclinically
  infected
• 228/lactating cow
• BVD 1 infected persistently infected calves
  for years
• 475/lactating cow

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Why Biosecurity?

• Preventive approach to herd health
• Reduce the herds risk for contracting or
  spreading a disease
• Often requires only management changes, not
  capital investment

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What is Biosecurity?

• A collection of management practices which
  protect a herd from the entry of new diseases and
  minimizes the spread and/or adverse effects of
  disease within a herd.

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The Animal Health Triad
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Immunity and Challenge
Disease
Subclinical Disease, Poor Production, Reduced
Efficiency
Immunity (Immunity x Environment)
Challenge (Disease Agent x Environment)
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Putting Biosecurity to Work

• Minimize exposure to disease agents
• Develop immunity
• Manage environment to support above points

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Reducing Exposure to Disease

• Consider the paths for disease entry or spread
• Cattle
• purchased animals, heifers returning from grower,
  show animals
• Manure
• Pests, pets, wildlife
• Feed
• Water
• Take steps to minimize your risk

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Cattle

• Single source you can inspect
• Known health history
• Primary secondary vaccine weeks before move
• Test as appropriate
• BVD-PI, Johnes, contagious mastitis, heel warts,
  salmonella
• Protect the home herd

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Transport

• Insist on clean transport
• washed between uses
• 60 of trucks contaminated with salmonella
• Dont group animals from other farms
• Trained, conscientious haulers
• Minimize stress

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Minimize Animal Contact

• Pets
• cats, dogs, chickens, geese
• Pests
• rodents, birds, wildlife

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Manure Management

• Avoid mixing with feed
• Consider flows
• near feed storage
• near youngstock
• Watch for carriers
• equipment
• people
• spreading

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Feedstuffs - Mill to Farm

• Rodent and bird control in feedmills
• vectors for many bacterial diseases
• Cleanliness of delivery trucks
• alternatives to delivery at the barn
• Drivers enter facilities only when necessary

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Keep Feed Clean

• Rodent and bird control in storage
• Dont use manure equipment in feed handling
• Preach caution in pushing up feed
• Be alert for areas where manure could mix with
  feed

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Dont Tolerate Fomites

• Every visitor should clean sanitize
• clothes
• boots
• hands
• equipment
• Discourage visitors from
• entering facilities unnecessarily
• parking near or working with youngstock
• moving between different groups unnecessarily
• Consider the order of work routines

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Manage the Environment

• Increase cow comfort through
• Good stall design
• assess utilization, lunging, resting posture
• Proper ventilation
• Proper footing
• Grouping cattle to decrease disruption

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Calving Area Management

• Maternity pen is the highest priority area
• clean and dry
• single use
• not a hospital pen
• separate from cows
• motel 6

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Neonatal Management

• Test for BVD-PI status before colostrum
• Colostrum
• 4 quarts ASAP
• from calfs own dam or Johnes free cow
• NO pooled colostrum
• Dip navel
• Remove calf ASAP

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Environment

• Nutrition
• balanced for growth or production
• analyze supplement
• Vit. A E, Cu, Se, Zn
• avoid molds mycotoxins
• suppress immunity
• pay attention to forage moisture levels and
  particle length
• can alter rumen and intestinal pH, making harmful
  bugs more viable

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Immunity

• Consult with your own customers vets
• Establish vaccination program which addresses
  diseases from all your customers
• Keep records of vaccinations

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Cow Calf Immunity

• Role of vaccines colostrum
• protects calf from diseases transferred across
  placenta
• provides important passive immunity for the calf
• should take into account any bugs that heifers
  might encounter on your farm

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Summary

• Avoid the entry or spread of pathogens
• cattle, manure, feed, water, equipment, people
• Manage the environment to
• reduce spread of disease
• optimize immunity
• Maximize immunity
• optimal passive transfer fetal colostral
• sound vaccination program rigorously adhered to