Biosecurity Preparedness Still Important For Dairy Farms

By Ron Johnson Dairy Editor
Thursday, October 16, 2008 7:37 AM CDT

Dairy producers can take steps to safeguard their farms against an outbreak of a foreign animal disease. That’s important not only for individual farms, but for dairying as a whole, since some 500 million pounds of milk move across the United States each day.

Two people involved in informing farmers about what they can do spoke during an educational session at the recent World Dairy Expo. Darlene Konkle, veterinary emergency program manager for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, and Matt Mathison, vice president of technical services for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, spoke about “Agro-Security n Safeguarding the Dairy Industry.”

They warned that a disease outbreak like foot-and-mouth disease would “stop the intrastate and interstate movement of animals and animal products and result in major economic impacts across the industry.”

One of those impacts would be the cessation of international trade. It’s “essential,” Mathison and Konkle emphasized, to “contain the outbreak quickly.” But doing so would require “much coordination between governmental agencies and…private industry.”

Far better than containing an outbreak and mopping up afterward is preventing one from occurring. Mathison outlined the steps dairy farmers can take to set up their own “food defense plan.”

One step is to establish a food defense policy as part of a farm’s operation management. That means looking at a farm’s risks and finding ways to lessen them.

The same thing should be done in regard to a farm’s animal biosecurity. Figure out what the risks are and then figure out ways to diminish them.

It’s also important to be able to “trace back” and “trace forward” livestock and other things that come onto a farm and leave it.

Remember to emphasize to family members and employees the importance of biosecurity by way of a training program, Mathison continued. And, know who to contact before there’s an emergency.

Farm environment management is important, too. As part of this, set up a policy regarding everyone who visits the farm, Mathison urged.

Part of that policy should be logging visitors in and out. It’s also a good idea to keep a running log of when animals come onto the farm or leave, and where they came from or went. Remember to log the movements of feed, semen and embryos, too.

Keep track of any pets or other animals that come onto the farm. The idea behind these logs is to give investigators a trail of information to follow in the event of a disease outbreak.

Be especially protective of your farm’s water source. Warned Mathison, “If you want to shut down any kind of business, contaminated water will do it immediately.”

An ideal farm biosecurity program has access to milking areas and milk storage areas controlled. It includes milk production and movement logs.

Hazardous materials should also be securely stored, with access tightly controlled.

Participating in the farm premises identification program can help officials figure out which other farms should be notified if an outbreak takes place. Along with that, it’s a good idea to know exactly how many animals a farm has, and exactly where they are.

Factor in vaccination and other animal treatment records as part of a farm biosecurity program. If you graze, keep good records of pasture locations.

“Advance planning and resource coordination can help mitigate and improve the response” to a disease outbreak crisis, Konkle said. “…Producers and processors must also take an active role…by implementing food defense programs on their farms and in their plants.”

Many involved

If such a disease outbreak is suspected or occurs, many people and several agencies will become involved. A farmer who suspects that a strange disease is present might contact a veterinarian.

If a solid diagnosis can’t be made that it’s not a run-of-the-mill disease, a “foreign animal disease diagnostician” will be sent to the farm at the behest of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Konkle explained. From there, the farm could be quarantined. More samples from infected livestock will be collected and a priority level for handling the incident will be decided. Other farms could be quarantined, too, depending on their location, any contact they might have had with the first farm, and the potency of the disease.

Samples from the suspect farm might be flown to the USDA’s diagnostic lab that handles these exotic diseases. It’s on Plum Island, off the tip of New York City’s Long Island.

Preliminary results could be ready 12 to 24 hours after the samples were collected. “A confirmed positive might take a little longer” n maybe 24 hours or several days more, Konkle said.

An incident command system,” or ICS, will be established. And “advance” team will meet with county officials where the outbreak was found.

An “incident management team” will mobilize, and state and national officials will be notified. Next, an emergency will be declared and the movement of livestock, milk, feed, and other traffic will be restricted or stopped.

Farms that should also be inspected will be notified and possibly quarantined. The “movement hold” could affect an entire state or other states. If the disease outbreak is deemed bad enough, international trade with the U.S. could be restricted.

A disease response team will go to the area of the outbreak and install biosecurity measures. And, livestock on infected farms might be destroyed.

Next would come disposing of the animal carcasses and cleaning and disinfecting the farms. From there, farmers would be allowed to “repopulate” with uninfected animals.

Konkle outlined a “very complex response that needs significant advance planning,” said Mathison. Responding to such a disease outbreak would involve “many players from both public agencies and private industry…” he continued. The dairy industry’s “producers, processors and infrastructure all must be prepared, along with government partners.”

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