By Joanna Cummings
Every day, livestock and poultry producers put time and effort into keeping their animals disease-free. It can be a monumental goal considering how many people, vehicles, and even animals enter and exit a farm daily.
A new mapping tool called SAFE MApp, the Secure Ag Farm Emergency Mapping App, gives producers the ability to visualize the potential entry points for diseases to the farm, and then strategize methods to keep them out.
This free and easy-to-use application can be accessed with an internet connection and a web browser; there is no need to purchase software. SAFE MApp uses Google Maps and Open Street Maps as a familiar base, and users simply enter an address to automatically pull up an aerial view of a location.
Users mark their maps with features identifying locations where “biosecurity” barriers, activities, pathways, structures, etc., are located or could be added. In this context, biosecurity is a set of methods and practices that prevent or greatly reduce the introduction of diseases or pests to farm animals. These practices can also contain the spread of diseases between farm animals.
Source : uvm.edu