Biosecurity of Horse Farms

The equine community has always recognized veterinarians as a resource for “spreading knowledge and preventing infection”. The community’s perception is that we are infection preventionists (IP) who have the knowledge about the pathophysiology of infectious disease so we must also have the knowledge of infection prevention, control and epidemiology. Veterinarians now have expanded roles when it comes to biosecurity and biocontainment. The community seeks our expertise for:

• Leadership
• Educator
• Mentor

The application of biosecurity and biocontainment procedures is important not only in health care facilities but also for equine breeding facilities, training facilities and other facilities that house horse populations. A biosecurity assessment should be approached like a physical exam. The basic objective is to identify deficiencies in the facility design, standard operating procedures, training and the animal housing/movement (Figure 1). Before you arrive to the facility you need to have the owner (s) /employee(s) dedicated to the evaluation. Just going through the motions of having an evaluation performed to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) may get you nowhere. During your visit you would want to talk to managers and personnel to get a feel of how the standard operating procedures are followed. Ask questions such as what happens to abortions? Animals with diarrhea and new arrivals? Ask these questions to several of the personnel to determine if they are consistent with their answers. Emphasize before you visit the facility that they should change nothing before your arrival. Observe activities and take plenty of photographs. Take notes so that when you leave the facility you will be able to easily recall your findings. Unfortunately most of the time when we get called out for a biosecurity assessment it is because of an outbreak situation. Ideally an assessment should be performed under “normal circumstances”. […]