Animal Movement: What are the risks and what is best practice? Farm Biosecurity examines this risk area more closely.

• How animal movement can affect your enterprise, what is best practice and what we should be striving for
• Biosecurity Review Launched by DAFF
• Anthrax Learnings and Animal Movement

Animal Movement is one of our five key farm biosecurity risk areas and can be a significant contributor to disease spread, regardless of your livestock or industry.

We take a look below at areas where animal movement can affect your enterprise, and how you can easily minimise the risks.

Receival of new stock onto your property

• Always demand a National Vendor Declaration to ensure that you have a record of where the livestock have come from and what treatments have recently been applied. NVDs must be kept by you the producer for at least 2 years. If new stock does happen to bring disease onto your property being able to trace the disease path quickly is important to controlling it. There are many ways to track the movements of your livestock including personal record keeping.
• Always request a health statement for the livestock being introduced. Check with your local district veterinary officer as to your responsibilities. In some states/territories it is a legal requirement to provide a health statement. In other states it is a legal requirement to provide health statements for certain classes of stock (those infected with defined diseases). Whilst in others there is no legal requirement at all. The health statements provide evidence of diseases the new stock have been exposed to, their risk in carrying diseases and treatments that have been applied.
• Check stock as they are off loaded on arrival for signs of injury or disease.

Good husbandry

• Make sure you know about the animals you are bringing on to your farm - and that the vehicles they travel on are cleaned and disinfected before use.
• Use drenches and appropriate vaccines as part of your animal health program.
• Check the vaccination and drenching records of all incoming animals.
• It is also a good idea to speak to your vet about an appropriate animal health program for new stock.

Segregation

• Keep new livestock separate from other animals for a suitable period. This gives time for disease symptoms to emerge, and reduces the chance of infecting your other stock. It also enables the animal to ‘empty out’ weed seeds in one paddock rather than spreading across your property.

Moving animals

• Red meat and pig industries must have a National Vendor Declaration (NVD) any time they move their livestock as it is the key tool underpinning Australia’s food safety reputation for livestock and is best practice. Livestock health statements provide a similar record for the health status of sheep, goats and cattle.
• The inclusion of animal movement information on an NVD means the document can legally be used for declaring stock movements in those states that require travel documents (Waybill or Travelling Stock Statement) to accompany livestock movements.
• NLIS is a key requirement for movement of cattle, pigs, sheep and goats nationally and must be adhered to. All other stock do not currently participate in NLIS schemes. For those producers not involved in NLIS or equivalent programs, recording where your stock go and come from is very important for tracing. It is a good idea to record the property identification code (PIC) of where the stock have come from or are going to. Check your industry Quality Assurance program for best practice information.

Fencing

• Poorly erected, broken or missing fences can allow your stock to mix with neighbours' stock or wild animals, which heightens the risks for the transfer of diseases to your property. Be sure to maintain boundary fences to keep your animals contained.
• Maintain buffer distances - double fencing between neighbouring properties.
• Cooperate with your neighbours over any fencing issues and for any movement of stock.

Taking animals to sales

• Be careful of your contact with other animals at the sale yards.
• Ensure your vehicle does not pick up any contaminated material and take it back to your property. This includes vehicles carrying your stock.
• Use NVDs as required
• Asking the question ‘is my animal fit for travel’ is important. Industries provide guidelines but one useful resource that is available is the Is it fit to load? Guide.

  'Is it fit to load?' is a national guide to the transport of animals fit to transport and has been developed in consultation with the livestock industry to help you decide if an animal is fit to be loaded for transport to saleyards, abattoirs, or any other destination.

  For more details visit:
  http://www.mla.com.au/TopicHierarchy/InformationCentre/
  AnimalHealthandWelfare/Animalwelfare/Transport+guide.htm

  Another in the same series is the ‘Is it fit to export?’ guide. The Australian livestock export industry recognises that maintaining the health, welfare and quality of livestock is the responsibility of everyone involved in the industry and to assist industry in maintaining the already high standards of animal health and welfare during the livestock export process for sheep, goats and cattle, MLA and LiveCorp’s Livestock Export R&D Program has developed the ‘Is it fit to export?’ guide.

  This guide is written in simple language, using photographs and diagrams to ensure everyone working in the industry is aware of, and follows, industry export guidelines.

  “This is yet another example of how the Australian livestock export industry continues to lead the world in livestock health and welfare”, said CEO LiveCorp Cameron Hall. “The industry is constantly working to improve its already high rates of successful transport of animals, and the Is it fit to export? guide will be of great assistance to everyone involved in the industry.”

  In compiling this guide, researchers have taken into account the current version of the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock and relevant sections of the LiveCorp Operational and Governance Manual Template.

Biosecurity review launched by DAFF
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Hon. Tony Burke MP last month launched a comprehensive, independent quarantine and biosecurity review to investigate a range of relevant issues.

Former secretary of the Department of Environment and Heritage Roger Beale AO will head up the review supported by an experienced panel including:

• former Deputy Chairman of the Quarantine Export Advisory Council Andrew Inglis AM;
• a commissioner of the National Water Commission and former National Farmers’ Federation Deputy Executive Director David Trebeck;
• and former Executive Director of the Australian Poultry Industries Association Jeff Fairbrother AM.

This is the first major review of quarantine and biosecurity since the former Labor Government commissioned a review by Professor Malcolm Nairn in 1995.

The independent review will consider a range of issues including:

• the functions of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) and Biosecurity Australia;
• the effectiveness of import and export inspection and certification;
• the scope and adequacy of the current animal and plant quarantine arrangements; and previous reports on Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity arrangements.

The panel is due to deliver its report and recommendations to the Minister by 31 July 2008.

Source: Sandra O’Malley, Canberra, AAP Feb 19 2008

Anthrax learnings and animal movement
Simple biosecurity measures around the issue of animal movement can reduce the risks of spreading disease and yet these measures are so often overlooked. A particular example can be seen in the spread of anthrax. If contaminated animals are transported to a new location they can spread anthrax spores to these locations, which once infected are almost impossible to clear. If the new properties in turn move their infected animals, the disease can continue to spread. Even if contaminated animals are simply moved to an abattoir they can still be a risk and may even contaminate abattoir workers. It is very important to report any anthrax outbreaks and to cease animal movements immediately.

An anthrax death was recorded at the start of the year in Goulburn Valley where a bull died from anthrax on a property near Stanhope, Victoria.

The same property was affected by the last outbreak of anthrax in Victoria early last year. As Dr Tony Britt, Principal Vet Officer at Victoria’s DPI says, it's common for cases to arise a year or two after the original outbreak. In this instance the property was quarantined by Victoria’s DPI and animals on neighbouring farms were also vaccinated.

Source: ABC Rural 22/01/2008