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Foot-and-mouth disease
Using good on farm hygiene reduces the risk of spreading pests and diseases and minimises the risks they pose to your business. This applies at all times of the year, but particularly so during harvest.
Being biosecurity-conscious doesn’t need to be a big commitment; with a little planning and forethought many biosecurity activities slide right in to being standard practice. Of course, when all the planning is said and done, the next step is the ‘doing’. Many livestock producers have been ‘doing’ biosecurity for a long time, with some practices being so ingrained that they have become a natural part of the day-to-day operation of a farm.
July 2021 marks five years since the transition from national regulation of Johne’s disease (JD) in cattle to producer management of the disease. JD was previously regulated in all states and territories in Australia, meaning that beef herds that had a case of JD were put into quarantine and would need to undergo a disease management plan to eradicate the disease before being able to sell cattle freely again.
With many sheep producing regions across Australia receiving rainfall through January to March, Animal Health Australia (AHA) is reminding producers to be vigilant about virulent footrot. Virulent footrot spreads and expresses in the warm and moist conditions which are prevalent in many regions right now.
All livestock producers will be familiar with managing parasites. Monitoring, preventing spread and treatment are routine practices on many farms. Rightly so, too, as parasite burdens slow the growth of animals, negatively impact their health and welfare, and reduce productivity.
Many important crop pests and diseases such as rusts, viruses, slugs, snails, mites and aphids survive in the green bridge and affect emerging crops.
You can minimise the biosecurity risks when introducing new planting material by implementing a few simple procedures to your routine.