The term “biosecurity” is one that it seems to have become very popular lately. It is frequently used in the media and usually is associated with terrorists or national security or maybe something that a huge commercial livestock corporation would use. However, for anyone involved in livestock enterprises, agriculture in general or just trying to stay healthy, biosecurity is a simple and important tool. Biosecurity programs are any program that attempts to prevent the introduction of disease causing agents into an enterprise. Once a disease is present on farm then we turn to biocontainment programs to control the spread of disease within the herd.

Here is an example of a biosecurity program in action. One of the most common ways for humans to get infected with the common cold is for a person with a cold to sneeze into their hand and then a fomite (let’s say a telephone) with that hand. Subsequently, another person handles the telephone and then rubs their eyes with their now contaminated finger. What just happened was the transfer of the virus that causes colds from the respiratory tract of the first person to the mucus membranes of the second person. How could we have prevented the second person from getting a cold? If the sick person had stayed home with his cold (biocontainment) none of this would have happened. If he had used a disposable tissue (sanitation) it wouldn’t have happened. If he had washed his hands (disinfection) after sneezing it wouldn’t have happened. If you had washed your hands after handling the phone it wouldn’t have happened. These are all pretty much common sense and we will apply these same principles to your goat operation to minimize the impact of communicable disease.

Many producers have the mistaken impression that their herd doesn’t need a biosecurity program. Let’s look at an example where a total lack of biosecurity could wreak havoc on a herd. This is a small group of registered Boer goats. The owners sell goats all over the United States and Canada. One of their neighbors makes them a “real deal” on a goat because it isn’t doing so well. It is obvious that the goat has footrot; it also has a draining abscess under its ear. Not so obvious is the fact that it has multiply drug resistant Haemonchus in its abomasum and is infected with a bacteria called Chlamydia which causes abortions. In a short space of time all of these disease agents have been spread to the new farm. Now we have foot rot which is a pain in the rear end. Anthelmentics are no longer effective. Goats that have been sold are being sent back because they have abscesses popping up and our pregnant does are aborting. Wow, our goat farm just got real complicated and now no one wants to buy our goats. We are spending all of our time treating sick goats, production is down, and the best buck has an abscess. What a mess and a very simple biosecurity program would have prevented all of this from happening.

How do we prevent the entry of an animal that may be carrying a disease into your herd? The simple answer is to never allow any animals into your herd instead, buy only semen and embryos. While you are at it, put up an 8 foot high security fence around your farm. Never allow animals back on the farm once they leave. Don’t allow any visitors on site and after you have gone to town change clothes and shower prior to re entering your farm. I think that all of us would agree that that sounds pretty extreme but realize that on large biosecure farms that is exactly how things are set up. For those farms the risk of introducing a disease into a 10,000 head confinement swine farm makes those extremes worth their while. For your farm you need to consider the risk of disease entry into your farm and the costs and benefits of keeping disease out of your farm.

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