The Importance of Biosecurity on your Goat Farm
By: Margaret A. Bell, Livestock Agent
Craven & Jones Counties
Adapted from “APHIS
Biosecurity on U.S. Goat Operations.”
Have you ever thought about biosecurity on your farm? What
is biosecurity? Biosecurity is various different practices you can implement on
your farm to reduce the risk of introducing disease into your herd. This is a
very important part of your herd’s health. Even one animal having a disease on
your farm could affect the rest of your animals. Read on to learn more about
how to make biosecurity improvements to your herd and your farm in general.
Herd Additions
Every time you add a new animal to your herd, you run the
risk of introducing disease. There are three good practices to fend off disease
from new animals. First, you can choose to have a closed herd, meaning the only
way you add animals is through kidding on your farm. Obviously, this is not
ideal for all farms because there is no way to add new bloodlines or improve
genetics in a closed herd. Second, new animals should be quarantined and
checked for signs and symptoms of disease for at least 30 days. Lastly, health
management practices are a good way to help ensure your herd stays healthy. These
may include: veterinary exams, deworming, vaccinations, and testing for
disease.
Usage of Needles
By reusing needles between animals, you greatly increase
your risk of disease transmission. The best practice would be to not reuse
needles. However, if this is not possible, you can reduce your risk of disease
transmission by disinfecting needles between each use.
Veterinarian – Patient
– Client Relationship
It is very important to have a veterinarian who has a good
client – patient relationship with you and your goat herd. Veterinarians are a
good source of information about the goat industry as well as goat health. Regular
farm visits by your veterinarian may help improve your herd, genetics, and
provide a great opportunity for you to ask questions about your herd.
Farm Visitors
When visitors come to your farm, it is very important that
they take precautions not to spread disease. Disease agents can be spread
through various locations such as clothing, hands, boots, vehicles, or
instruments. You can require that visitors take any and all of the following
precautions: change into clean boots, use shoe covers, wash hands before
touching the animals, don’t park near the goat area, and use a footbath before
entering goat area.
Kidding Management
It may be a very good idea to keep does that are kidding for
the first time away from the rest of the herd because if they become infected
with bacterial pathogens while pregnant, they could abort, have abnormal kids,
or kid early. Also, it is important to promptly remove placentas and aborted
fetuses because they can hold infectious organisms that could possibly spread
to other goats.
You should also consider taking precautions with your goats
having physical contact with other animals including raccoons, skunks, and opossums.
These animals can carry disease and infect your herd. Also, it is very
important to make sure your animals are properly identified with an
identification number, such as a Scrapie tag. Various forms of identification
are required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture when animals are sold or
moved from the farm.
These are just a few ways you can make your farm less
susceptible to disease. Follow these steps to help raise biosecurity at your
farm: work closely with your veterinarian, isolate new animals, disinfect or do
not reuse needles between animals, limit outside animal contact as well as
visitor contact, use proper animal identification, and properly manage kidding
areas to reduce disease transfer. If you have any questions about how biosecure
your farm is, feel free to contact your local Cooperative Extension agent.
