Expert discusses partner countries’ perspective on biosecurity, practices U.S. can implement
On Nov. 7, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), Beef Quality Assurance (BQA), Beef Checkoff and Neogen cohosted the annual Stockmanship and Stewardship Virtual Event, a unique educational experience featuring industry updates, BQA certification classes and information on best practices for livestock production.
With an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza tearing through the states, several of the event’s discussions centered around biosecurity.
During one of the morning sessions, NCBA Beef Cattle Specialist Veterinarian Dr. Julie Herman and Dr. Tom Brownlie, veterinary epidemiologist and founder of ingenum – a New Zealand based company providing disease detection tools for national and international government agencies, agricultural companies and livestock producers – discussed how America’s partner countries have responded to disease outbreaks and how U.S. producers can potentially apply these biosecurity practices to their own operations.
“At NCBA, we are really focused on biosecurity and trying to get producers to understand what biosecurity means, how they can effectively implement it and to pay attention to biosecurity threats on a global scale,” said Herman. “This session is meant to challenge producers a little bit to figure out what else they can be doing while looking at some of the things our partner countries have been doing.”
Preparedness
First, Brownlie outlined his experience with disease outbreak which includes helping to eradicate several diseases in Australia and New Zealand, as well as being involved in the foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak response in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2001, where over six million cows, sheep and pigs on over 10,000 farms were mass slaughtered.
He noted nothing can prepare individuals for the shock and long-term effects that come with burning piles of corpses, but it’s still critical to stay vigilant and be prepared for anything.
Brownlie explained preparedness plans in these three countries encompass a five-pronged approach.
First, it is important to understand where the threat lies. In the case of FMD, producers and the industry as a whole need to be aware of where the disease is known to be endemic, sporadic, eradicated and nonexistent, as well as possible routes of entry it could take to enter a specific country.
The last three steps, according to Brownlie, include establishing strategy and legislation where required and building tracing and detection mechanisms.
He noted the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) program in New Zealand and the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) in Australia track movement of livestock with emerging technology such as electronic identification tags.
“NAIT and NLIS are embedding technology deeper into normal workflow so it becomes more seamless,” he explained. “It is never perfect, but nonetheless it is there, and in the event of an outbreak it is our first go-to in understanding how to move forward.”
Response and recovery
In the unfortunate instance an outbreak does occur, it is critical for the industry to have an immediate and fast-moving response, which Brownlie notes may likely fall to legislation or litigation.
“Responses are often chaotic, ugly and uncomfortable,” he admitted. “Things can always change, but essentially what happens is, in the beginning of our response, we want to ensure we understand what is going on with the disease without it getting away from us.”
“As we move through the response and become more confident, we can drop some of the things that are no longer high risk and focus on others,” he added.
When it comes to the next step – recovery – Brownlie said, “We spend a lot of time thinking about preparedness and a short amount of time flailing around trying to get a disaster response underway. But then we have to think of recovery, which is very important and often overlooked.”
He noted producers involved in an outbreak will likely experience two kinds of recovery – short term and long term.
Short-term recovery efforts may include claiming compensation or insurance payouts and figuring out how to get the business back on its feet.
Long-term recovery may include dealing with grief and heartbreak, which may take years.
“I sat around a lot of kitchen tables after the FMD response in the UK dealing with utter grief, and that doesn’t go away in the weeks and months after the response,” he said.
Prevention and mitigation
While being prepared and having a mechanism in place to respond to an outbreak is absolutely critical, arguably even more important is taking vigilant steps to prevent the disease from occurring and mitigate its impact in the first place.
“Biosecurity is the reason we are having this talk today. I believe it is the most important part because prevention is vital,” Brownlie said.
He highlighted nine biosecurity measures practiced in New Zealand, starting with drawing a distinct boundary between clean and dirty areas of the operation.
“The second point raised is an important one,” he added. “The notion cleaning must precede disinfection may seem obvious, but if we were to protect livestock, we must maintain a bio-secure boundary, and disinfection doesn’t work on its own”
Along these lines, the third point is that sterility is a myth.
“Making the assumption anything is sterile in the ag industry is naive, but working toward reducing the burden and exposure of pathogens is key here,” he stated.
Other practices adopted in New Zealand include incorporating a unidirectional flow of people and livestock where appropriate; quarantining new animals for at least 21 days; conducting regular health status checks and understanding, when purchasing new stock or semen, there is never an absolute guarantee of health status.
“Finally – and possibly most important – procedures established as part of a biosecurity plan are meant to be followed by everyone who works for the system,” Brownlie concluded.
Hannah Bugas is the managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
