Practical biosecurity – an integral piece to herd health planning

Abstract

Biosecurity is the one aspect of a cattle operation that the pro­ducer has the most control over. Each producer has practices in place to protect their cattle and optimize their health. Vet­erinarians are purposefully trained to understand the compo­nents of biosecurity including animal health, epidemiology, infectious disease and public health consequences. Biosecurity planning is an important piece to herd health planning that can benefit the producer and the veterinarian. The National Cattle­men’s Beef Association (NCBA) Producer Education team works on the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) and other Beef Checkoff-funded programs each day to ensure cattle producers and vet­erinarians have industry-leading information and resources. Several resources developed by the Producer Education team at NCBA, and the separately managed Secure Beef Supply, are available for producers, veterinarians and transporters to re­view for more information on biosecurity to improve cattle wel­fare before and during potential disease outbreaks.