Principles of Biosecurity Apply to Small and Large Swine Operations Alike

A Veterinarian with Carthage Veterinary Service suggests the same principles of biosecurity apply to both large and small swine operations alike. African Swine Fever and the Benefits of Biosecurity was the focus of an ASF Action week webinar hosted last week by USDA-APHIS.

Dr. Clayton Johnson, a veterinarian and partner with Carthage Veterinary Service outlined the definition he uses for biosecurity and discussed the topic, what does good biosecurity look like?

Clip-Dr. Clayton Johnson-Carthage Veterinary Service:

Our goal is to produce a system of barriers that reduce the probability, and another word for probability is the risk, that we introduce a novel pathogen and we're focussed with biosecurity on the farm on not bringing that pathogen into our farm, even if it's already present within the country. This is about building a perimeter around the farm, a line of separation, or a clean dirty line that we're going to respect and we're going to have a series of practises in place for anything that crosses that line.

Those are the barriers that we're going to put in place. We're not focused on the pathogens we already have in our herd. We're trying to limit the introduction of new pathogens into our herd. The goals, the principles, they're all the same. In my experience there is no consistent theme between having good biosecurity on a larger operation or a smaller compared to their different size counterparts.

It's all about the investment in time and planning and monitoring. The goals and the objectives, the practices, they're the same. When I'm working with a farm to build biosecurity plans the size of the farm would generate no considerate.