According to the USDA definition, biosecurity means doing everything possible to reduce the likelihood of an infectious disease being accidentally or intentionally transmitted to your farm by humans, animals, equipment, or vehicles. Disease prevention best practices include a combination of following a vaccination schedule and simple but important biosecurity measures in your barn, traveling, events, and caring for your horse. The proposed biosecurity protocols differ depending on the situation and location. Below are some common biosafety resources. Take a look at the biosafety subpages, which provide resources specific to common situations and places to help you keep your horse safe, happy and healthy at all times. When visitors come to your farm, ask where they went in case they need to wash their hands or clean their shoes. “Ask visitors to check in before they have contact with your horses, especially if they`ve recently been to another farm or sale, etc.,” she says. It also helps with the second greatest risk – people who go from horse to horse and accidentally carry pathogens. “It`s important to measure temperatures in horses returning from a show, because fever is often the first sign of illness,” says Traub-Dargatz. “Until then, you are in the area where you are trying to contain the disease instead of preventing it, since it is already on your farm. But you may be able to reduce the number of animals that get sick if you take the appropriate measures at that time. “There are certain steps that a horse owner MUST legally take to be biosecure.
These are described in detail in the Biosafety Act 2015 and supporting legislation. Infectious diseases such as the flu and the horse herpes virus can come home with you through exposed horses and on your saddle, equipment, skin and clothing. Here`s how to avoid these scenarios and keep your horses healthy. Laws cover the things that are likely to have the greatest impact on our economy, our environment or our community. Rider Victoria President Christie Freeman has called on horse owners across the state to have a say in ensuring the sector is not excluded from future discussions. Vaccination can be an essential aspect in the control of infectious diseases, since in many cases owners cannot prevent exposure. “But remember that vaccinations can`t prevent disease in all animals, with all the diseases that concern us,” she says. “Vaccines perform better if we keep the challenge of the disease at a lower level.” In addition to prescribing the rules for high-risk biosecurity issues, the Biosafety Act 2015 includes a biosecurity obligation for horse owners and anyone facing biosecurity issues.
“It is important that we use our perspective not only to improve biosecurity, but also to influence legislative changes that can have significant consequences for our sport. Since horses are defined as “cattle” under state law, any change directly affects all horse owners and those who operate in the horse industry, for work or pleasure. The magnitude of a disease outbreak on your farm by this exposed horse could be reduced if you take action quickly once a disease has been detected. There is always some risk of removing horses from the farm, but the safest events are when all the horses that arrive need a health certificate and vaccinations. “Your feedback will help confirm priorities for reforming Victoria`s biosafety legislation,” Victoria`s website reads. Horse owners are also supported in biosecurity management by local land departments, private veterinarians, community members and industry umbrella organizations. To reduce the risk of bringing home an illness if you take a horse somewhere and later return it to the farm: “We encourage all riders and recreational horses to read the suggestions and participate in the survey,” she said. It can be difficult to reduce the risk and frequency of outbreaks of contagious equine diseases, but horse owners can help control the introduction or spread of diseases such as equine influenza, horse herpes virus (HEV) or chokeholds on their farms. To this end, Josie Traub-Dargatz, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, professor emeritus of equine medicine at Colorado State University, suggests horse owners read the USDA biosafety brochure. “Ideally, you`d take the horse with the fever somewhere alone, not with other animals, and leave the horses exposed where they are and watch them — instead of taking them to another stable and possibly exposing the horses to the other stable,” she says. Horse movement has been banned throughout New South Wales, which has harmed the New South Wales horse breeding industry, pony clubs and our Olympic equestrian team.
Below is a summary of the tips in the USDA Biosecurity Brochure for Horse Owners. “This was written by a veterinarian in New Jersey who had horses and received excerpts from a presentation she thought were 4-H children,” says Traub-Dargatz. “This veterinarian tried to study the ways in which diseases could be introduced to you or your exposed horses, and what you can do to reduce those risks.” “If you take your horse somewhere, take your own buckets of water, don`t share any equipment,” she advises. “When filling a bucket, do not put the end of the pipe in your bucket; Hold it on the bucket. If the end of the pipe has recently been in another person`s bucket of water, there may be pathogens outside the pipe. As for the physical separation of horses (with an unknown disease status), many wonder how far and how long a new horse should be separated from other horses on the farm. “For some diseases, when horses share airspace, they can be exposed,” says Traub-Dargatz. “The flu, for example, can be transmitted to other horses within 150 feet. It`s at least 10 stands. With a disease such as chokeholds, it usually requires real physical contact or shared water, tack, etc. Keep a new horse as far away as possible. It is preferable that horses do not share the same airspace (i.e.
not in the same stable). If a horse has a fever, your first reaction might be to keep the horses away from both sides, but it is possible that they have already been exposed (especially if it is a respiratory disease) and in this case, you are only spreading the problem. Heather Smith Thomas ranched with her husband near Salmon, Idaho, raising cattle and a few horses. She holds a bachelor`s degree in English and History from the University of Puget Sound (1966). She has been breeding and training horses for 50 years and has been writing independent articles and books for almost as long, publishing 20 books and more than 9,000 articles for publications on horses and cattle. Some of his books include Understanding Equine Huof Care, The Horse Conformation Handbook, Care and Management of Horses, Storey`s Guide to Raising Horses and Storey`s Guide to Training Horses. In addition to her own blog, www.heathersmiththomas.blogspot.com, she writes a biweekly blog in insidestorey.blogspot.com, which is published on Tuesdays. equinediseasecc.org/biosecurity/disinfection “There are things you can do (to reduce the likelihood of introducing a disease),” she says. “Doing one of them will reduce the risk, but the question is how much. If a farm has a population of mobile horses, it is very difficult to completely eliminate the introduction of pathogens. “It`s definitely better than putting your horse in a stable next to a strange horse, especially if both pens share a water source. The horse next door could leave secretions in the water that could be infectious. Biosecurity is any process or measure to protect the public from harmful biological or biochemical substances (source).