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Division of Animal Health and Dairy Services

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Animal Health

Biosecurity for Dairy Facilities

In these turbulent times, disease control on the farm is serious business. The goal of biosecurity is to minimize the introduction of disease onto farms, limit the spread of disease already on farms, and reduce the risk of disease being carried between farms. This includes controlling the transmission of disease-causing agents between animals, from animals to feed and from animals to equipment that may directly or indirectly contact other 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 through animals, vehicles, visitors, personnel, pests, and other means.

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.

An additional factor in biosecurity is to keep the farm protected from intentional or unintentional tampering with the farm, animals or equipment which may instigate a disease outbreak.

Management Practices

Key farm management practices are intended to prevent or reduce the following hazards to acceptable levels:

  • Biological Hazards - There should be a plan for controlling risk from viruses, bacteria, parasites and other contaminants. These controls must be considered from the standpoint of: 1. Introduction to the farm; 2. Exposure and spread within the herd; 3. General and specific measures for immunization; and, 4. Minimizing the risk of export to other farms.
  • Chemical Hazards - There should be a plan for handling and storage of pesticides, herbicides, feed additives, drugs, medicines and any potentially toxic materials.
  • Physical Hazards - There should be a plan for animal handling and treatment to minimize trauma and maximize comfort and care. This includes ventilation, traffic flow, housing facilities and animal handling equipment.

The Spread of Disease

Disease is generally spread in the following manner:

  • 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.
  • Feeds, especially high risk feeds which could be contaminated
  • Impure water (surface drainage water, etc.).
  • Manure handling and aerosolized manure and dust
  • Animals other than cattle (horses, dogs, cats, wildlife, rodents, birds and insects).

The Three Major Components of Biosecurity

  • Isolation
  • Traffic control
  • 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

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. New cattle arrivals on a farm should be kept physically separated, preferably in a separate building, from cattle already present for a period of at least 14 days. This will allow sufficient time for the manager to identify cattle which may be incubating highly contagious diseases because clinical signs will appear during this interval. It also reduces the risk that the diseases will be spread to animals in the existing herd.

Similarly, animals already in a herd that become sick should be removed from the herd and placed in a separate building or at least a hospital pen. Coughing animals and animals with diarrhea can readily spread infectious agents to other cattle in the barn. Separate equipment should be used for caring for animals in hospital pens and manure and bedding should be handled separately to avoid cross-contamination.

An important biosecurity action on farms is to separate cattle by age and/or production groups. Adult animals may carry disease organisms that will not make them sick but can make young stock sick, for example coccidiosis and some respiratory viruses. If calves are kept in a barn with cows, make sure that the barn exhaust fan is drawing the air from the cows away from the calves and not towards the calves. In other words, have the calves at the opposite end of the barn than the exhaust fan.

Facilities should be cleaned and disinfected appropriately between groups. Contact the MA Department of Agricultural Resources (DAR) veterinarian about specific isolation management procedures and how they can be applied to control targeted diseases.

Traffic Control

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.

Buying cattle from herds that have a verifiable quality vaccination program is important in maximizing biosecurity (i.e., pre-conditioned cattle). However, it is also important for the truck to have been adequately cleaned before hauling the cattle. Traffic control can be built into a facility 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 milk, cattle, feed, feed handling equipment and equipment used on cattle or to process milk. Pit silos should not be accessible by non-feed 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. Whenever possible, always use separate equipment for handling feedstuffs and handling manure. If not feasible, make sure equipment is cleaned of manure and disinfected before handling feed. Salmonellosis and Johne's disease are excellent examples of diseases readily spread by the shared use of equipment to handle feed 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.

Sanitation

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

There should be a vehicle cleaning area for trucks and heavy equipment. Farms should consider extending a decontamination policy to other vehicles (especially tires) that are used across biosecurity control areas on the operation .

The main objective of sanitation is to prevent fecal contaminates from entering the oral cavity of cattle (fecal - oral cross contamination). Equipment used which may contact cattle's oral cavity or cattle feed should be a special target. The first step in sanitation is to remove organic matter, especially feces. Blood, saliva, and urine from sick or dead cattle should also be targeted.

All equipment that handles feed or is introduced into the mouth of cattle should be cleaned, including disinfection as appropriate, before use. Loaders used for manure or dead cattle handling must be cleaned thoroughly before using for feedstuff. It would be best to use different equipment.

Minimize the use of oral equipment and instruments such as balling guns, drench equipment and tubes. If used at processing and treatment, thoroughly clean and disinfect all items between animals. Store cleaned equipment in clean, dry areas. Avoid storage in tanks or containers containing disinfectants because most disinfectants are neutralized by organic material. Disease transmission is commonly traced to the use of those storage tanks.

A key principle in cleaning and disinfection is worth repeating. Disinfectants can not penetrate organic matter to do the job of killing infectious organisms. Manure, blood and other organic matter must be thoroughly removed from surfaces using hot water, detergents, pressure sprayers, and/or elbow grease before disinfectants are applied or the disinfection process will be compromised.

Farm Security

Given current concerns about terrorism in general and agroterrorism in particular. it is extremely important for anyone in the food production or processing business to attempt to prevent any tampering with the food supply. This includes being vigilant about any suspicious activity and following procedures to prevent problems before they occur. The following examples should be considered and adapted as practical for your operation:

  • If you hire someone from an outside vendor to work at the farm (plumber, pesticide applicator, repairs, etc.), verify that they work for the company you hired.
  • Use an employee identification system and consider background checks on new employees.
  • Restrict movement of non-employees (deliveries, outside repair and maintenance, plant tours, etc.) to areas where they cannot contaminate food products.
  • Screen visitors by having them show identification and sign in. Maintain the visitor roster for 6-12 months. Have all visitors including regulatory inspectors wear "visitor passes."
  • Employees and/or personnel who move freely throughout the farm should watch for signs of sabotage to equipment; missing, broken or unprotected glass; indication of tampering with ingredients or packaging.
  • Entry doors should be secure and locked.
  • Protective equipment should be available, in place and functioning.
  • Ask employees to report anything suspicious.
  • Establish contact with the local law enforcement offices (police, sheriff, etc.) so you know who to contact in case of emergencies or disasters.
  • Ensure that your water supply system is secure, with locks on wellheads and pump houses, water storage tanks, etc.
  • Assess your farm's risk level for sabotage of bulk ingredients. Ensure that connections for bulk systems are locked and secure. For example, outer connections should be enclosed and locked at all times.
  • Have an updated recall plan in place and ready for use if necessary.
  • Inventory your potential hazardous chemicals and review your security for them. Are they stored in a non-secure, non-supervised area? Are they stored outside? Are bulk delivery systems secure? Do you make it easy for a disgruntled employee or terrorist to obtain chemicals and potentially add these to the milk of feed supply?
  • Restrict all personal items such as bags, extra clothing, purses, etc. from the processing areas.
  • For ingredient safety, know your suppliers and have an inspection system for incoming ingredients. Develop accountability for all restricted or controlled ingredients.

For further information

For more information or to discuss the biosecurity situation on your farm, call the Bureau of Animal Health in the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources at 617-626-1795.

Download Biosecurity for Dairy Facilities guidelines in printable format [PDF]

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