Introduction
Dairy practitioners commonly witness one of the ironies of human nature: People often meet risk with inaction.  Whether it’s market risk, weather risk, or risk of disease introduction and outbreak, a client’s course of action in response to that risk often is hesitation, at best; paralysis, at worst.  Thus, clients must be led to disease risk reduction through biosecurity by a knowledgeable and resolute herd veterinarian. Planning and executing an effective HerdSecure focus will relieve some of that crippling risk from them, as well as offer expanded consulting medicine business for you. 

Pfizer Animal Health, maker of CattleMaster® ScourGuard 3® (K)/C, Bovi-Shield®, One Shot Ultra™ and other dairy animal health products, brings you this HerdSecure series to help practitioners adopt preventive biosecurity strategies for progressive dairy operations. 

HerdSecure™ Action Steps
Biosecurity may seem cut-and-dried on paper. But in the real world, it’s usually necessary to set clients upon a course that’s customized to introduce their dairies to biosecurity in manageable steps. Implementing an effective HerdSecure biosecurity program requires planning and attention to detail.  And it requires dedication to execute the plan, involve everyone in the operation, and follow through with regular re-evaluation. Help your clients set these steps in action, to develop and then enforce good management practices before disease strikes:  

1. Evaluate Current Status
Helping key dairy clients evaluate their present herd biosecurity status offers dual benefits. First, it helps them identify the risks they face in productivity and profit, underscoring the need for better biosecurity. Second, it helps you identify the most promising prospects to grow your consulting business. Which client dairies are the best bets? Those that have shown a willingness to adopt practices yet still have weak points in their program along this adoption scale:

DISEASE RISK INCREASES Dairies stand the most to gain from increased biosecuritygg

2. Identify The Weak Points
Next to animals, people are the most common disease vector a biosecurity program must control. When designing plans, consider two components:

• Expansions. Clients growing their herds will require more purchased additions.  Purchased additions -- particularly cows in milk that can’t effectively be quarantined -- spell higher risk of disease introduction. 
• Dairies buying replacements from wider sources. Increased local, national and international animal movement has increased the migration of diseases outside old bounds. 
• Operations using an off-dairy professional heifer grower. Sending calves out and then bringing them back can be a recipe for disease introduction without adequate biosecurity. 
• Dairies hiring workers. The average 200-plus dairy now employs 13 workers in addition to family members, according to research by Dairy Herd Management magazine. Larger workforces also mean more employee turnover; new hires untrained in biosecurity pose a constant biosecurity risk due to the potential for human error. 
• Farms experiencing nagging disease-related losses and inexplicable productivity plateaus.

3. Establish A Plan
Although your biosecurity planning must be adjusted based on the previous process of identifying the weak points in any herd’s management, ultimately, a three-pronged HerdSecure approach is the best overarching structure to minimize disease outbreaks.

Plan clients’ biosecurity improvements along a three-pronged strategy:

• Animal control

• People control

• Effective vaccination

4. Train . . . Everybody
Next to animals, people are the most common disease vector a biosecurity program must control. Thus, training must be an ongoing aspect of a dairy’s biosecurity. 

Workers should be trained in their responsibilities, including where they are allowed to go and what animals they should contact. Employee training should stress waste management, movement of animals and people, and other biosecurity issues.

Seemingly straightforward aspects of biosecurity may need review for untrained employees, including cleaning and disinfecting buckets, hands and boots; use of sterile, single-use disposable needles; protocols to rinse and disinfect instruments used for tagging, castrating, tattooing, removing teats and dehorning; and using separate loader buckets for feed and manure handling.

Although your training will likely center on employees, it shouldn’t stop with them. Dairy managers likewise will require a certain level of on-going education to enforce the value of health as a competitive advantage and to prevent them from losing interest and commitment after the initial passion fades. 

Managers also may require training in how to manage and motivate their employees to maintain biosecurity efforts in your absence.

Establish a relationship with vendors and other production consultants to enhance the producer’s biosecurity plans.

5. Execute The Plan
Once responsibilities are assigned and plans are in place, help dairies execute the plans.

• Animal control: Divide animal-centered control into two areas: First, control introduction of disease into the herd via purchased animals. Second, if disease is present, establish management practices to control intra-herd animal movement. 
• People control: Monitor people movement inside the farm. Work to maintain lines of responsibility for each employee to prevent intra-farm contamination. Control inter-farm traffic, as well. 
• Effective vaccination: Work to maintain a strong, practitioner-centered vaccination program. The minimum should include BVD, IBR, P13, BRSV, Leptospirosis, and Campylobacter (if using aged clean-up bulls). Consider including Pasteurella haemolytica, Haemophilus somnus, scours vaccines and E. coli mastitis vaccines.
  

6. Re-Evaluate Regularly
Precisely because biosecurity isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but instead must be customized to your individual dairies, ongoing maintenance is necessary. Plan and execute regular adjustments based on changes in management and people. 

Identify Your Best Biosecurity Prospects

• The dairy already has a strong quality-assurance program in place?
• The dairy has already adopted some biosecurity measures?
• Producer is a current production-medicine consulting client of yours?
• Operation stresses prevention over treatment?
• Management focuses on best-cost strategies to ensure profit-not least-cost strategies?
• Dairy employees are actively involved in management and motivated to improve?
• Operation uses a measurement-based system of constant improvement to track and demonstrate to others the quality represented in both its animals and milk?
• Operation controls introduction of disease through new animals?
• Operation limits visitors from entering the dairy at will?
• Client follows your vaccination and booster program recommendations?
• Client actively involves other suppliers in biosecurity -- particularly custom calf raisers and feed/commodity suppliers?
• Client is currently profitable?
• Dairy is planning or undergoing expansion?
• Management is current in payment to your clinic and has a history of prompt payment?

For More Information
As a company devoted to the dairy industry, Pfizer can help you assist clients in protecting their dairy herds through sound biosecurity management practices and vaccination programs designed with their needs in mind. For reprints of this article, additional HerdSecure™ biosecurity management information and information on Pfizer Animal vaccines, like CattleMaster®, ScourGuard 3™ (K)/C, and Bovi-Shield™ please call 1.800.829.5528.

This series is brought to you by Pfizer Animal Health. www.pfizer.com/ah