Animal diseases, both foreign and domestic, can devastate livestock industries. California’s multi-billion dollar livestock industry is vulnerable to outbreaks of domestic and foreign animal diseases due to its multiple international ports, more than 6 million international visitors yearly, and susceptible livestock populations. California dairies and your dairy are especially vulnerable as they contain larger numbers of animals concentrated in small areas, many purchase their replacement heifers from other ranches, often send their own heifers to calf ranches for up to two years where they are co-mingled with calves from other locations, and frequently depend on outside sources for feed. Preventive measures are crucial to safeguard California’s animals. The risk of disease is always present.

Prevent Introduction of Diseases. Viruses, bacteria, mycoplasma and pests do not respect fences. They can enter your livestock facility on:

• Animals - livestock, wild animals, pets and insects
• People - bodies, clothing, shoes and possessions
• Animal products - especially meat and dairy products as well as hides and skins
• Animal feed, water, bedding, and soil
• Equipment of all types
• Vehicles - tires, floor-boards, mud, road dirt
• Air - in aerosols and dust

• Work with your veterinarian, farm advisor and nutritionist to develop a plan that will work for your dairy.
• Do not allow meat or animal products from Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD)-infected countries to enter your facilities. Know the origin of all meat and animal products.
• Educate your employees about the importance of following the biosecurity plan and their important role in making the plan work.
• Be sure that your farm families are familiar with the real hazards that exist and respect your Biosecurity Plan including dealing with visitors, foods and products that may represent a threat.
• Provide farm personnel with ready access to toilet and handwashing facilities.

• Limit the number of visitors to your dairy to include guests, AI techs, veterinarians, foot trimmers, salesman, manure haulers, etc.
• Provide clean protective clothing and footwear for visitors and require that they wear them when entering livestock facilities.
• Provide effective boot washing and disinfectant facilities, solutions and brushes and keep them properly maintained. Insist that visitors bush-wash to remove manure and disinfect their boots upon arrival and departure from your dairy.
• Restrict close contact or handling of animals by visitors.
• Ask foreign visitors to provide information about recent farm and animal contacts.
• Exclude foreign visitors from livestock facilities for at least five (5) days after their arrival in the United States.
• Do not permit clothing, shoes or other articles (such as luggage, cameras, jewelry, and watches) that have been in FMD-affected countries to enter livestock facilities.
• If you travel to an FMD-affected country, wear protective clothing on livestock facilities and leave them there. Carefully wash and disinfect all clothing and shoes upon return to the U.S.
• Meet with all vendors providing services to your dairy to work out procedures they will follow every time they come to your dairy. This includes milk trucks, equipment service personnel, veterinarians, milk testing services, dairy inspectors, cattle haulers, sales people including feed, drugs, semen and equipment.

• Establish a traffic pattern for vehicles that have visited other livestock facilities (such as sales vehicles, rendering trucks, feed trucks, or cattle transporters) to prevent them from entering livestock areas.
• Provide facilities for washing and disinfecting the tires of vehicle before they enter livestock areas.
• Clean livestock vehicles after visiting another livestock facility or transporting other animals before using them for your livestock.

• Provide as much distance between your animals and neighboring animals as possible—consider double fencing the perimeters to minimize nose-to-nose contact.
• Isolate new additions and animals returning from exhibits for about 30 days, and handle new additions after your other animals. This means that the isolated animals do not share water, feed, facilities or bedding with your other animals. Workers handling these animals should shower, change clothes, wash and disinfect boots or change them before working with other animals on the dairy.
• Isolate sick animals, and promptly begin appropriate treatment.
• Sick animals and fresh cows should be housed separately.
• Treat sick animals after all other animals, and avoid contaminating your clothing, hands, and footwear. Follow guidelines for handling newly arriving isolated animals.
• Isolate equipment that has been in contact with sick animals. Thoroughly wash and disinfect equipment before reusing.
• Young animals should be inspected, fed, watered, treated and handled before the older animals.
• Transport animals in cleaned and disinfected vehicles.
• After visiting another livestock facility or show, change your clothes and footwear before handling or feeding your animals.
• Keep livestock facility clean, free of manure buildup and pest free.
• Remove and dispose of dead animals as soon as possible, use equipment dedicated for this purpose or clean and disinfect the equipment before it is reused to move feed, etc.

• Clean and disinfect anything that has come in contact with manure or animal secretions before it is used for another purpose, such as using a loader to move manure or dead animals and then using it to load the feed wagon.
• Clean or replace animal bedding regularly, scrape surfaces clean, and clean solid surfaces with high-pressure hot water and a disinfectant.
• Do not allow young calves to come into contact with manure from mature animals.
• Prevent manure run-off from other facilities from entering your facility.

• Create a system to ensure purchased feed ingredients are not contaminated with Salmonella and other agents.
• Minimize feed contamination on the farm through proper storage facilities, and have dedicated equipment to handle feed.
• Clean and sanitize feeding and watering equipment and water troughs regularly.
• Maintain a vermin control program, and minimize their access to feed.

Recognize and Report Diseases. Early recognition and immediate response to livestock disease is critical to containing an outbreak. The first 24 hours are the most important in stopping the spread of a disease or pest. Potential signs of a foreign animal disease include the following:

• Sudden, unexplained death loss or herd-wide decrease in milk production
• Severe illness affecting many animals
• Blistering around an animal’s mouth, nose, teats, or hooves
• Unusual ticks or maggots
• Staggering, falling, or other central nervous system disorders

If you see signs of a foreign animal disease, report them immediately to your veterinarian first, then to your California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Animal Health Branch District office! Laboratory fees for investigating possible foreign animal diseases or pests are at no cost to the producer. If you learn that illegal animals or animal food products are being smuggled into the state, report it to animal health officials (you may remain anonymous). By reporting, you help protect California livestock from the threat of animal disease.

For additional information:

Call the CDFA, Animal Health Branch

Call USDA Veterinary Services (916) 857-6170 or (909) 947-4462

Visit the CDFA Web site

For more information on biosecurity and disinfectants see Biosecurity: Selection and Use of Surface Disinfectants by Animal Health and Food Safety Services, California Department of Food and Agriculture.