Animal Bioecurity Education Program for Youth
Day 1
Outcome: During this lesson, participants will gain knowledge on what biosecurity is and
how diseases are spread.
Outcome: During this lesson, participants will form attitudes and opinions toward the
importance of animal biosecurity.
1. Introduction- Introduce self and state purpose of project- To teach youth about
proper biosecurity measures they should take when working with animals to
reduce the risk of disease transmission. This is a new program; you are among the
first students to participate in it. We want to measure its effectiveness before
offering the program as a 4-H curriculum or a high school curriculum. To find out
what you already know and what your attitude toward biosecurity is before
program, we will give a pretest. After the whole program we will give you a
posttest to see what you learned.
a. Procedure
i. 2 day long program for 50 minute schools
ii. 2 day long program for block schedule schools
iii. Before program starts, pretest students- use 2 letter code for school
and last 4 digits of phone #- TELL ME IF ANYONE HAS THE
SAME PHONE # ex. NN2075
iv. We will discuss biosecurity, work in groups, listen to lecture, do
case scenario.
v. At end of program all students will be given post-test to measure
changes in knowledge and attitude.
vi. These tests do not measure how smart you are as a student; they
are designed to measure my teaching effectiveness and
effectiveness of the program.
2. Distribute pretest and give students time to complete it- 20 minutes
3. What is Biosecurity?
a. Ask for ideas- participants or instructor write them on board/overhead
b. Tell real definition- When referring to livestock production, biosecurity
refers to measures taken to keep disease agents out of populations of
animals where they do not already exist.
i. Has anyone heard of biosecurity issues in the news lately
pertaining to animal agriculture? Use overhead pictures of
headlines
1. BSE
2. FMD
3. organophosphate poisoning- diazinon insecticide
o affects CNS, seizures, nausea, drooling, blurred
vision
4. monkey pox
4. How are diseases spread?
c. Direct Transmission - The spread of disease from one host to another
host.
i. Contagious/Communicable Disease - spread of disease from
person to person
ii. Aerosol - airborne droplets and/or dust
iii. Fecal-Oral - contamination of food or water
iv. Fomites - inanimate objects involved in disease transmission
v. Zoonotic Disease - spread of disease from animals to humans
1. Animal Bites
2. Contact with infected animal tissue, fluids, feces
d. Indirect Transmission - The spread of disease from host to host by means
of a vector. A vector is usually some type of invertebrate animal.
i. Zoonotic Disease
1. Infected Animal >>> Vector >>> Person
4. How to avoid spreading disease
a. What can be done in US to help stop the spread of disease from another
country?
i. Road blocks/ checkpoints
ii. Stop importation of foreign goods- mad cow disease
iii. Quarantines
iv. Airport, seaport checks of people/animals
5. Lecture on PowerPoint on 3 aspects of Biosecurity
a. Traffic control:
i. It is important to understand that traffic includes more than people
and vehicles. It also includes other animals such as dogs, cats,
horses, wildlife, rodents and birds. Traffic control within the
operation should be designed to stop or minimize contamination of
livestock, feed, and all feed handling and other equipment onto/and
on the farm should be controlled.
ii. Service vehicle tires carry manure; thus, vehicles should not be
driven through runoff, manure or feed areas.
1. Monitor delivery trucks – make sure if they go to several
farms they are disinfected between each one.
iii. On farm boots should be cleaned and disinfected regularly.
Disposable boots should be made available to visitors. Visitors
should have limited access to critical areas where animals are
housed and feed is stored and handled.
iv. Animal movement onto farm and within farm must be carefully
controlled, especially vehicles hauling live and dead animals.
v. Visitors to farm should not be allowed
1. People should not be allowed to pet animals at shows/fairs
2. People from urban areas less of a risk
3. vets, other farmers, are high risk visitors
b. Sanitation
i. Anyone working with or handling animals needs to know about
zoonoses and the precautions to take to minimize the risk of
infection.
1. practicing good personal hygiene,
2. covering cuts and scratches with waterproof Band-Aids,
3. wearing personal protection (gloves, boots and aprons)
4. Wash hands after handling animals and before preparing or
eating food.
5. Do not place unwashed fingers in anyone’s mouth,
including your own.
6. Vaccinating livestock, and controlling rodents.
7. Make sure that pets are regularly wormed -- see your
veterinarian for advice on which worm medicine to use.
8. Do not handle animals that appear ill, or carry skin
infections.
9. Use gloves when emptying or moving litter trays.
10. Avoid animals if you do not know their origin.
11. All tools and equipment should be cleaned and disinfected
before it leaves farm.
c. Isolation
i. A biosecure farm should be 600 feet from a public road
ii. Minimize commingling and movement of animals. This includes
all new purchases as well as commingling between established
groups.
1. Do chores involving animals from youngest to oldest to
sick
iii. Even in operations that have high turnover, such as feedlots,
keeping feeding groups from mixing is an important biosecurity
measure.
iv. Isolate sick animals until you are certain they are no longer
contagious, at least a month.
v. Sick animals should be in a completely separate facility from
healthy animals- preferably 900 feet away.
1. If that’s not possible, isolate sick animal as far as possible
from others and change its water frequently
(This is a good point at which to split the time for Block and Traditional Schedule
Schools)
6. Review what was discussed in last session
a. What is Biosecurity?
b. How diseases spread?
c. How to avoid spreading disease
d. 3 aspects of biosecurity
7. Why Biosecurity is important
a. Impact on human health
i. Safe food supply needed for healthy population
ii. Food supply an easy target
iii. Not many people can produce own food is US food supply
compromised
b. Impact on animal health
i. Sick animals=low production
ii. Mass death
c. Impact on economics
i. No meat/milk/cheese/eggs to sell means no profits
ii. Illness=fear, ex.- BSE and importation of possibly infected beef
stopped
iii. Who HAS safe food can charge a bundle for it- organic or ‘grass
fed beef” can =$5.00/lb on the low end
8. Break into groups of 4-5 and discuss scenario.
a. Read and come up with answers to questions.
b. Then each group will be assigned a question to answer and tell the rest of
the group what you came up with.
9. Posttest 20 minutes