Welcoming visitors onto your beef operation for tours, sales or informal stock viewings is a great way to connect and tell your story, but it also opens the door to a serious risk: disease. Every visit—whether from neighbours, tourists or family—carries the potential to introduce or spread disease to or from your operation.
Good biosecurity practices help manage these risks while also reducing the probability of disease at the herd, national and even international levels. It’s important to understand why biosecurity matters during tours, as well as what actions should be in place before, during and after tours to minimize risk.
Why Biosecurity Matters During Tours
Biosecurity planning and precautions should be implemented during tours to limit the potential spread of disease to your livestock. This not only helps protect against significant reportable and trade-limiting diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease, but also helps reduce the spread of endemic diseases, such as bovine viral diarrhea (BVD).
Hosting tours introduces various pathways for disease entry—through people, vehicles, animals and equipment. Visitors may include individuals who have had recent livestock contact or those unaware of farm biosecurity.
Keeping visitors safe is also important. Zoonotic pathogens can cause disease in both humans and animals; familiar examples include E. coli and ringworm.
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