Dairy Farm Biosecurity Plan

DAIRY FARM BIOSECURITY PLAN

Date:………. / ……….. / 2017

FARM:………………………………………………………….

PIC: Q …. …. …. …. …. …. ….

OWNER/MANAGER:…………………………………………………………

BIOSECURITY ADVISOR:…………………………………………………………

1. ACTION PLAN: THINGS TO DO IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS

Signed

Farm Owner______Animal Health Advisor ______Date______

1. WHOLE-FARM BIOSECURITY RISK MATRIX

This risk matrix will help you to identify your own appetite for biosecurity risk and what level of biosecurity risk control you desire for your dairy farming business.

Consider these factors:

• What type of cattle do you sell, to what market?
• How important are those sales to you?
• What type of cattle do you buy in, and in what numbers?
• How important is it to you to stop new diseases, pests and weeds from spreading
• Onto your farm?
• Within your farm?
• Fromyour farm to another farm?
• Who do you go to for information about diseases and other biosecurity risks, and how sound is their advice?

1. UNDERSTANDING BIOSECURITY RISK PREFERENCE FOR SPECIFIC DISEASES

Consider the diseases and biosecurity risks listed below.

Add to the table any other biosecurity risks that you consider are significant for you at this time. Some suggestions are on the next page.

Evaluate each disease/risk forlikelihood and impact. Then, decide how it is best managed for this business.

*Insert any other disease or biosecurity risk of significance to your property and which you would like to address in this plan. You might consider:

• Botulism
• Calf scours
• Chemical contaminants
• Antibiotic residues
• Lead
• Digital dermatitis (footrot)
• Drench resistant worms
• Pestivirus (Bovine Viral Diarrhoea virus, Mucosal disease)
• Salmonella
• Theileria
• Vibriosis
• Weeds

1. BIOSECURITY MEASURES

For the diseases and biosecurity risks listed below, identify what you are already doing, what you need to put into place, and what you might like to consider.

The table contains some suggested measures. Some of these might be suitable for you; others may not be; there may be other measures that you would prefer. Please delete, amend, highlight or underline, or insert measures so that they reflect what you will do on your property.

• Carefully assess the disease status of the originating property.
• Insist on receiving a National Vendor Declaration, and retain for seven years.
• Insist on receiving a National Cattle Health Declaration, and retain for seven years.
• Inspect animals prior to introduction.
• Segregate & observe introduced animals for 21 days before allowing contact with other animals.
• Only purchase semen & embryos from reputable sources.
• Ensure animal movements are notified to NLIS.
• Ensure animals are tagged before leaving the property.

• Maintain a closed herd – no movements of any cattle into the herd.
• Purchase cattle only with Dairy Score 8.
• Ensure that all animals to be introducedare low-risk (specify how).
• BEFORE deciding whether to purchase cattle, review the JD Dairy Score on the National Cattle Health Declaration to assess whether it meets your needs.
• No transiting of animals less than 12 months of age at saleyards.
• Agist off-farm only cattle that are 12 months and older.
• Ensure that an off-farm agistment property has a biosecurity plan and only allows cattle of the same JD Dairy Score.
• Ensure hygiene and isolation strategies are in place to manage the biosecurity risks when livestock are at shows, sales, etc. – clean stalls/pens, fresh bedding, cattle are led with heads off the ground in common areas such as wash bays, races and show rings.
• If you don’t know the risk of introduced animals – protect your calves from them.
• Consider using only processed semen and embryos instead of live animals.

• In the tick free zone, prevent entry of cattle tick to a property. Only buy animals from the tick free zone or animals from tick infected zone that have been certified tick free, that come with a biosecurity certificate issued by an accredited certifier. (Ref: Queensland biosecurity manual, pages 47-55)
• Infested zone prevent introduction of chemical resistant ticks.
• Check introduced cattle are treated before transport, obtain declaration of any chemicals used for treatment.
• Inspect all introduced cattle for ticks.
• Check whether acaracide resistance testing has been conducted on originating property.
• Vaccinate susceptible animals with trivalent tick fever vaccine.

• Maintain a closed herd – no entry of cows from other herds.
• Check mastitis history of potential source herds:
• Bulk tank and hospital milk monitored twice yearly?
• BMCC history
• Tested for Strep agalactia?
• PCR tested for Mycoplasma? (Twice, 3-4 days apart due to intermittent shedding)
• Calf health history
• Do not buy animals with mastitis.

• Maintain a closed herd OR
• Purchase only stock from dairy herds (already monitored free) OR
• Isolate and test cattle for EBL before mixing with dairy cattle.

• Identify diseases that routinely occur in the region/district/industry.
• Consider preventative programs of vaccination, drenching, dipping, supplementationetc.
• Monitor animal health and behaviour in the paddock and at milking.
• Comprehensive mastitis prevention program is complied with by all workers.
• Isolate sick animals.
• Investigate unusual incidents of disease, weeds etc.
• Report unusual outbreaks of disease to the local veterinary practitioner or Biosecurity Queensland (ph. 13 25 23).
• Participate in surveillance programs such as ‘Bucks for Brains’ (incentive payments for investigation of diseases:
• Keep treatment records until animal has permanently left the property.
• Observe WHP, ESI.
• Prompt disposal of carcasses (burn, deep burial or composting) in a way that takes into account environmental and public considerations.
• Biosecurity plan is reviewed annually.

• Consider using veterinary advice in the development and implementation of this biosecurity plan (Annual vet review mandatory for Dairy Score 8).
• Ensure 3-step calf plan is always practised:

1. Calves taken off the cow within 24 hours of birth

1. For the calf rearing area, ensure that calves and the area are not exposed to effluent or manure from cattle, sheep, deer, or alpaca

1. Pastures used for rearing calves up to 12 months old should not have been exposed to manure from adults for the preceding 12 months

• Monitor introduced animals and investigate any suspicious signs of diarrhoea or wasting.
• Consult a veterinarian if disease is suspected.
• Biennial HEC test for Dairy Score 7 and 8; first round to be completed by 30 June 2018.
• Record laboratory test results and manage property based on outcomes.

• If there is JD on the property, minimise the potential spread of infection and clinical cases within and from the property. Work with a veterinarian to cull infected and high-risk livestock, manage grazing and vaccinate, as appropriate:

• Eradicate an infestation from a place in the free zone. Treat infested cattle.
• Infested zone, define threshold level of tick infestation before treatment required.
• Monitor stock for ticks and tick fever.

• Vaccinate young animals at 3 to 9 months of age, and other stock at risk of tick fever, with trivalent tick fever vaccine. Two vaccinations may be necessary if cattle from tick-free zone are being moved into tick-infested country.
• Consider testing for acaracide resistance, every two years.
• Calibrate spray races, dips and all other application methods to ensure accurate and effective dosing.

• Wash teats.
• Ensure any staff that milk on other properties wash their hands thoroughly and wear different clothes before milking on your property.
• Ensure staff wear disposable gloves and keep them clean throughout milking.
• Monitor cows for clinical mastitis. Take milk samples and submit to veterinarian if mastitis rate exceeds:
• 2% during lactation, or
• 5% at calving time (first 14 days).
• Monitor bulk tank and hospital milk regularly:
• BMCC
• Test for Strep ag twice yearly
• Test for Mycoplasma every 3 months, OR if the BMCC increases by 100 000 cells/ml(PCR testing for Mycoplasma; twice, on samples taken 3-4 days apart due to intermittent shedding).
• Treat mastitis cases immediately.
• Cull to slaughter cows with mastitis that do not respond to treatment.
• If Mycoplasma is found, seek veterinary advice on reducing the risk of mycoplasma transmission at milking time, in the hospital herd, and to the calves via colostrum and milk.
• Implement strict hygiene controls with calf management.

• Do not share animal equipment and implements (eg, dehorners, vaccine guns, needles, knives, probangs) used for dairy herd with any other cattle.

• Purchase stock feeds from reputable suppliers, and always get a Commodity Vendor Declaration.
• Ensure that stock feeds are totally free of products derived from vertebrate animals, excluding tallow and gelatine.
• Inspect stockfeed on delivery to ensure it is fit for purpose (e.g., free from pest damage and visual contaminants).
• Store stockfeed in a manner that prevents contamination by livestock, vermin, wildlife, feral and domestic animals and other feed types, e.g., those containing RAM.
• Observe withholding times for introduced products such as poultry shed effluent.
• Check sources of farm inputs prior to purchase if they are considered to pose risks.
• Dispose responsibly and securely if stockfeed is found to be damaged or contaminated.
• Monitor the quantity and quality of water.

• Fence off creek and install water troughs.
• Ensure water for calves is free of faecal contamination.
• Consider using bore water rather than ground water.

• Use biosecurity signage to direct visitors to house or shed.
• Lock gates that you don’t want visitors to use.
• Maintain a register of farm visitors.
• Check that visitors have not been in contact with animal infections on other properties.
• Keep visiting vehicles on driveways; use only farm vehicles to traverse paddocks.
• Limit movement of personnel around the farm.
• Provide facilities for visitors to clean boots and equipment.
• Ensure contractors/vets enter the property in clean overalls and disinfected boots; clean before moving between animal groups; clean before leaving the property.

• Have an effluent plan that includes:
• Controls to prevent the potential spread of disease
• Capturing, containing and disposing of effluent from the dairy and yards within the boundaries of the farm
• Fencing effluent storage areas to prevent access by people and livestock.
• Have a disposal plan for potentially contaminated waste materials such as bedding, used syringes, chemical containers, and dumped milk.
• Fence off waste disposal areas to exclude stock and feral animals.

• Adopt 3-step calf plan (particularly if not a ‘closed herd’):

• Maintain contact with and understand your neighbour’s disease status and any drainage from land or effluent that may pose a risk.
• Secure and monitor boundaries by fencing to prevent uncontrolled movement of livestock.

• Establish whether neighbours livestock and their management and trading patterns present an increased risk.
• Consider a plantation buffer zone to filter faeces from runoff.
• Re-locate calves under 12 months of age to areas of low risk from neighbour stock and run-off.

• Isolate carcasses.
• Have disposal areas for dead cattle that are secured and contained to prevent access by livestock, feral animals and wildlife.
• Have disposal areas in locations that prevent nuisance to neighbours and spread of contaminants into waterways or the environment.
• Engage a veterinarian to investigate unusual outbreaks of disease to rule out exotic disease and minimise potential biosecurity impacts.

• Movement records (NVDs) – movements in
• Movement records (NVDs) – movements out
• Cattle Health Declarations – movements in
• Cattle Health Declarations– movements out
• NLIS updates
• Movements within farm
• Stock feed inputs, Commodity Vendor Declarations
• Treatment records
• Health monitoring, detections of diseases, pests, weeds
• Diagnoses, laboratory results
• Register of visitors, vehicles
• Staff induction & training records

1