Two new multi-species reports have identified biosecurity gaps in Ontario’s beef, veal, goat, sheep, and rabbit sectors.
The reports pinpointed areas where farmers and supply chain partners can improve their processes, equipment, or buildings to help prevent disease and keep losses to a minimum.
“There’s no question that animal health is a key priority for our farmers,” said project coordinator Jennifer O’Rourke. “Keeping our farms and our livestock disease-free is an important part of ensuring our producers and our industries are profitable, competitive, and meeting the needs of the market.”
Although many biosecurity practices are already being used to some extent by industry participants, a number of gaps common across the five sectors were identified in the reports. That included difficulties in being able to identify the health status of animals entering a herd or flock, lack of proper animal movement controls, improper handling and cleaning of manure, and lack of controls to minimize water and feed contamination.
Implementing on-farm biosecurity strategies is a flexible approach that can work on farms of all sizes, species and production systems to help prevent or mitigate a disease outbreak.
“Many producers are already incorporating aspects of on-farm biosecurity into their operations, but our goal is to have solutions that are do-able and flexible to meet the needs of different producers and industry stakeholder groups,” said Dan Ferguson, of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association and a member of the project steering committee.
The reports are the first step in a new, multi-phase project partnership between Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, Ontario Veal, Ontario Goat, Ontario Rabbit, and Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency to identify, quantify and address biosecurity gaps and build the industry’s emergency preparedness capabilities. A joint approach was practical and economically responsible as there are many common issues related to animal disease and biosecurity across those five livestock sectors.
Work is now underway to examine on-farm costs of economically significant diseases and what savings disease reduction might represent to farmers.
