Biosecurity

Biosecurity is a set of practical measures you can take to prevent and limit the spread of infectious diseases on your farm and from elsewhere. Below, we've compiled a range of advice and resources, from general best practice to farm-specific information to help you protect your farming business.

Good biosecurity is important for all farmers.

Reducing the introduction and spread of disease will protect animal and plant health, improve animal welfare and avoid the potential costs associated with disease.

The most likely way for disease to arrive on your farm is through new animals, or the return of your own animals from elsewhere.

While there are some sector-specific biosecurity issues, such as some notifiable diseases, most of the biosecurity measures you need to take on farm are applicable to all:

• Do not buy in problems e.g. with new livestock
• Do not bring disease onto your farm e.g. boots, vehicles, equipment, returning livestock
• Do not let disease spread across your farm boundaries

There are many simple precautions that you can take, and your biosecurity plan must be tailored to the needs of your farm – discuss this with your vet.

Benefits of good biosecurity

Some of the benefits of implementing good biosecurity practices include:

• New infectious diseases are avoided
• Spread of disease is reduced
• Control and eradication of disease becomes a real possibility
• Reduced need for antibiotics and medicines
• Increased productivity
• Improved animal welfare
• Reduced costs

It is not always easy to identify which animals may be carrying infections, so it is important to find out as much as you can about the health of the livestock you are buying.

Some animals may only have a mild form of a disease, some may be recovering from disease, and others may be carriers of infection for some time after recovering from the disease.

Any animals coming onto your farm, whether bought, borrowed or returning, will increase the risk of introducing a new disease.

The best protection for your animals is to run a closed herd or flock, but, if that is not possible, the next best thing is to implement good biosecurity practices:

• Find out as much as you can about the health of the animal(s) you are buying, including vaccination status and the general health of the source herd
• Quarantine bought-in animals for at least 3–4 weeks – discuss species-specific guidelines with your vet

You should also:

• Make sure staff are trained so they understand how to reduce the risk of cross contamination and the spread of disease
• Clean and disinfect thoroughly between batches of animals
• Monitor and control vermin
• Identify and address high-risk areas on your farm

Explore our species-specific biosecurity guidance:

Benefits of quarantine

Quarantine doesn’t have to be sophisticated – it can be a double-fenced field well away from your own livestock. For housed livestock, quarantined animals should be kept in separate buildings with separate airspace.

You should use separate equipment and staff with quarantined animals or handle isolated stock last.

Some of the benefits of quarantining new livestock include:

• Opportunity to check livestock for clinical signs of disease
• Time for livestock to recover from and to stop shedding infection before mixing with other animals
• Opportunity to test animals for diseases you don’t want on your farm
• Time to complete a full course of vaccination to protect new livestock from diseases already present on your farm

Reducing the spread of disease helps maintain the health and welfare of your livestock, reduces the costs of disease and maintains productivity.

Explore our species-specific disease pages to learn how to identify and prevent them:

Outbreaks of notifiable diseases on farm are serious and there is a legal requirement to immediately report any incidence to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

While there are some species-specific notifiable diseases, e.g. African swine fever in pigs, many can affect more than one species, e.g. foot-and-mouth disease in cattle, sheep, pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals.

Preventing the introduction, and limiting the spread of notifiable diseases through good biosecurity is very important.