Biosecurity Basics for Cattle Operations and Good Management Practices (GMP) for Controlling Infectious Diseases

Biosecurity

The goal of biosecurity is to stop transmission of disease-causing agents by preventing, minimizing or controlling cross-contamination of body fluids (feces, urine, saliva, etc.) between animals, animals to feed and animals to equipment that may directly or indirectly contact animals. Biosecurity management practices are designed to prevent the spread of disease by minimizing the movement of biologic organisms and their vectors (viruses, bacteria, rodents, flies, etc.) onto and within your operation. Biosecurity can be very difficult to maintain because the interrelationships between management, biologic organisms and biosecurity are very complex. While developing and maintaining biosecurity is difficult, it is the cheapest, most effective means of disease control available, and no disease prevention program will work without it.

Infectious diseases can be spread between operations by:

• the introduction of diseased cattle or healthy cattle incubating disease;
• introduction of healthy cattle who have recovered from disease but are now carriers;
• vehicles, equipment, clothing and shoes of visitors or employees who move between herds;
• contact with inanimate objects that are contaminated with disease organisms;
• carcasses of dead cattle that have not been disposed of properly;
• feedstuffs, especially high risk feedstuff which could be contaminated with feces,
• impure water (surface drainage water, etc.);
• manure handling and aerosolized manure and dust; and
• nonlivestock (horses, dogs, cats, wildlife, rodents, birds and insects).

Develop a Biosecurity Resource Group

The first step is to develop a Biosecurity Resource Group/Team. The group should include people important to the success of your operation such as your operation supervisors, veterinarian, nutritionist, extension specialist, suppliers and others who may have special knowledge in control of biologic organisms. Generally beef operations have been open to vehicle traffic and visitors. Of all the possible breakdowns in biosecurity, the introduction of new cattle and traffic pose the greatest risks to cattle health. Properly managing these two factors should be a top priority in your operation. Biosecurity plans should be developed to meet the specific needs of each operation.

Biosecurity has three major components:

• isolation,
• traffic control, and
• sanitation.

When effectively managed these components meet the principle biosecurity objective of preventing or minimizing cross-contamination of body fluids (feces, urine, saliva, respiratory secretions, etc.) between animals, animals to feed and animals to equipment.

Isolation prevents contact between animals within a controlled environment. The most important step in disease control is to minimize commingling and movement of cattle. This includes all new purchases as well as commingling between established groups of cattle. Even in operations that have high cattle turnover, such as feedlots, keeping feeding groups from mixing is an important biosecurity measure. Isolate feedlot hospital cattle and return them to their home pen as soon as possible. Long-acting therapies have improved our ability to minimize movement of infectious organisms between groups. An important biosecurity action on ranches is to separate cattle by age and/or production groups. Facilities should be cleaned and disinfected appropriately between groups. Visit with your veterinarian about specific isolation management procedures and how they can be applied to control targeted diseases.

Traffic control includes traffic onto your operation and traffic patterns within your operation. It is important to understand traffic includes more than vehicles. All animals and people must be considered. Animals other than cattle include dogs, cats, horses, wildlife, rodents and birds. The degree of control will be dictated by the biology and ecology of the infectious organism being addressed, and the control must be equally applied.

Stopping a truck hauling cattle from driving onto your operation as a biosecurity measure for controlling BVD may not be beneficial since the virus is spread from animal to animal. Buying cattle from herds that have a verifiable quality vaccination program would be more important in maximizing biosecurity. However, it would be important for the truck to have been adequately cleaned before hauling the cattle. Traffic control can be built into the facilities design. An example would be placing cattle loading facilities on the perimeter of the operation.

Traffic control within the operation should be designed to stop or minimize contamination of cattle, feed, feed handling equipment and equipment used on cattle. Pit silos should not be accessible from nonfeed handling equipment such as loaders used outside the feeding area or vehicles that travel outside the feed mixing and handling facility. No one (manager, nutritionist, veterinarian, banker — no one) should be allowed to drive onto the surface of a trench silo. The only equipment allowed should be the loader used for handling the feedstuff. In large pits, it may be acceptable to allow feed trucks to enter, provided they are loaded at least 100 feet away from the working face of the stored feed. If possible, separate equipment should be used for handling feedstuffs and manure.

Vehicles and employees should not travel from the dead cattle area without cleaning and disinfecting. The dead animal removal area should be placed in a location that allows rendering trucks access without cross-contaminating healthy cattle. Vehicle cleaning areas are becoming more common in commercial feedlots. Unfortunately they are frequently used only for trucks and heavy equipment. Management should consider extending a decontamination policy to other vehicles (especially tires) that are used across biosecurity control areas on the operation. Ask your biosecurity resource team to help you evaluate traffic control on your operation.

Sanitation addresses the disinfection of materials, people and equipment entering the operation and the cleanliness of the people and equipment on the operation.

For more detailed and specific information about applying biosecurity principles to your operation, contact your veterinarian or Cooperative Extension specialist.

GMP for Controlling Infectious Diseases

Develop a biosecurity plan and commit to its implementation. Committing to a biosecurity plan is a vital step toward controlling of infectious disease. Keeping pathogens out of a herd improves production efficiency, lowers costs and reduces risks to employees and family.

Biosecurity GMP Checklists

Review the checklists below and discuss each item with your veterinarian. Ask your veterinarian to rank the biosecurity importance of each item (0=not important, 5= very important). Check Y (yes) or N (no) if the biosecurity item is being addressed.

References

• Carlson, K. R., Biosecurity — Profit for the Taking!, Good Management Practices for Controlling Infectious Diseases, Dairy Today Supplement, Agri-education, Inc. Dairy Quality Assurance Center. 1998.
• Howard, J. and Smith, R.A., Current Veterinary Therapy: Food Animals, 4th Ed. Saunders, 1998.
• Jeffrey, J.S., Biosecurity for Poultry Flocks, Extension Poultry Veterinarian, University of California-Davis. 1997.
• McFarlane, A., A Briefing on Biosecurity Procedures. Prairie Swine Centre Inc. 1999.
• Smith, B.P., Large Animal Internal Medicine. Mosby, 1990.
• Spencer, J., Development of composting and management strategies for elimination of animal pathogens and assay systems to monitor effectiveness, Canadian Food Inspection Agency. 1996.
• Wallace, R.L., Consider Biosecurity Steps When Expanding Herd. University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Medicine. 1996.