Sheep and Goats

• Establish and implement an efficient and effective health plan with input from your veterinarian.

• • Include written Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for health procedures, including vaccinations and deworming.
  • Include written SOP for treating sick animals.

• Observe all animals at least once daily for signs of disease, including lameness, loss of appetite, salivation, lethargy, or sudden death.
• Individual animals or all of your sheep and goats should be examined carefully by a veterinarian if signs of disease are noted.

• • It is especially important that a postmortem examination be performed if unexplained livestock deaths occur.
  • Biological specimens should be submitted to a diagnostic laboratory if the cause of disease problems is not obvious.

• Special attention should be paid to equipment such as livestock trucks and trailers, manure loaders and spreaders, tractors, portable livestock chutes and trimming stand, and other fomites that could easily spread disease from one site to another. Clean equipment thoroughly after each load.
• Locate delivery/loadout facilities at perimeter of property.
• Livestock exhibitions, other than terminal shows, should be avoided if possible.

General Recommendations

• Maintain a closed flock/herd if possible (i.e., do not bring in new additions to herd).
• Identify each individual with tag or tattoo.
• Maintain excellent records for all animals and keep the records up to date. Include the following information:
• Origin (natural addition or purchased).
• Vaccinations
• Test history
• Clinical signs, treatments, cause of death or cull, etc.
• Have a valid veterinary/client/patient relationship and include your veterinarian in all animal health decisions.
• Monitor animals daily for signs of disease.
• Call your veterinarian immediately if unusual illness or signs are noticed.
• Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on what to do for different diseases/conditions.
• Develop a vaccination protocol to improve flock/herd level immunity with help from your veterinarian.

• • Consider vaccinating for clostridium diseases CD & T.
  • Administer booster vaccination when recommended and allow four weeks for immunity to develop for most vaccines. Understand vaccination may only reduce clinical signs in animals and not prevent infection.
  • Purchase vaccines in small size containers but adequate for the size of group to be vaccinated. Discard any open containers of unused vaccine.

• For pastured animals, beware of feeding areas that will produce a muddy environment.
• Do not let your shearer spread disease.

• • Provide shearing surface (carpet, plywood, etc.) on farm for shearer to use.
  • Do not allow shearer to use own surface which has been on other farms.

New Animals

• Maintain a closed flock/herd and grow them internally or minimize frequency and number of new additions of animals.
• Designate isolation or quarantine facilities for all new animals (refer to Facilities section).
• Isolate new animals or returning animals for a minimum of three weeks before introducing them into the resident flock.
• Limit purchases to a single source with known and trusted flock/herd health programs:

• • Ask the seller for written account of herd/flock health information.
  • Purchasing animals from sale yards or auction markets presents a risk of bringing disease onto your farm since complete history of disease exposure may not exist.

• Observe for clinical signs while in isolation in your quarantine.
• Test new animals for diseases of concern and with tests that produce valid results (remember that a negative test may not guarantee freedom from disease).
• Vaccinate new animals prior to transportation. Realize that vaccinating animals when stressed (recently transported, new environment, recently weaned, etc.) may not be the most effective vaccination strategy.

Resident Animals

Kids/Lambs

• Diarrhea is a common problem in young animals.
• Keep the kidding/lambing area as dry and clean as possible with minimal stocking density.
• Minimize kid/lamb exposure to dirty environment (mud and manure).
• Ensure newborn nurses in the first few hours after birth.
• Provide colostrum if they do not suckle.
• Keep kids/lambs on a excellent plane of nutrition – may need to creep feed as they get older.
• Vaccinate kids/lambs with Clostridium perfringens C&D and tetanus at:

• • 1 month of age.
  • Repeat in three to four weeks.

• Records should be maintained to include birth date, dam, sire, diagnoses, treatments, procedures, etc.
• Do not allow purchased/off-farm kids/lambs to be in same area as herd/flock; keep separated with dam.

Weaned Kids/Lambs

• Respiratory illness may be a problem in weaned kids/lambs. Coccidiosis is another common clinical disease.
• Provide good, dry weaning environment.
• Supply clean source of water.
• Provide a good mineral supplement (salt plus other important macro and trace minerals).
• Provide coccidiostats in feed or mineral supplement.

Adults

• Provide a good mineral supplement (salt plus other important macro and trace minerals).
• Provide coccidiostats in feed or mineral supplement.
• Maintain in a body condition score (BCS) of approximately 3/5 before breeding.
• Vaccinate one month before kidding/lambing.
• Establish a designated pen or area where animals being treated or are sick may be kept under close observation.
• Record all treatments and follow recommended meat and/or milk withdrawal times
• Have a logical feeding order: feed healthy animals first and sick and treated animals last.
• Cull chronically diseased animals: mastitis, lameness, etc.
• Identify animals that abort.
• Send fetus and placenta to a diagnostic lab and contact your veterinarian.

Employees

• Check references and perform background checks for all prospective employees.
• Provide supervision to all new employees.
• Restrict employee access to their respective work areas.
• Train employees in good animal handling techniques. Good stockmanship adds to a positive environment that assists in maintaining animal immunity against disease.
• Train all employees to recognize signs of disease, alert super-visor of suspicious activities, and understand and follow procedures within the biosecurity plan.
• Train employees to understand that the movement of manure (on clothing, boots, equipment, animals etc.) is one of the biggest biosecurity risks for on farm movement of diseases.
• Warn employees who have contact with off farm animals of the same species to not track off farm manure onto your farm and for.
• Require employees to wear clean clothing and boots.
• Create protocols for clean clothes daily washing boots and hands regularly.
• Require employees to wear gloves when milking, caring for sick animals, assisting with births, and handling stillbirths or dead animals.
• Require employees to work through groups of animals in a certain order, from clean to dirty, young to old, and healthy to sick, to reduce spreading disease to the more susceptible animals.
• Require employees working in “high risk areas” (i.e. with scours) to remain in those areas or change clothing and footwear before leaving those areas.
• Retrain employees regularly to maintain a high level of employee performance in all their tasks including the biosecurity plan.

Visitors

• Visitors include routinely scheduled persons (veterinarians, haulers, fuel/feed deliveries, inseminators, utility readers, etc.) and non-routine persons (tours, salespeople, other livestock owners, and regulatory personnel) that visit your farm.
• No person should enter your farm without your prior approval.
• All visitors should sign a log book. Include information such as date, name, organization, phone number, reason for visit, and the last time they had contact with livestock. This list will be an important tool used by investigators if needed to contain an outbreak.
• Evaluate the level of risk associated with your visitors: Do they own animals? Do they move between farms? Will they have close contact with your animals? Have they recently returned from another country?
• Do not allow anyone who has been on a farm in a foreign country to enter livestock units for a minimum of five days after returning to the US. Other countries may have diseases in their flocks or herds that are considered Transboundary Animal Diseases to us.
• Restrict visitors to the specific areas of the farm required for their task(s). Post signs to inform visitors of rules to follow while on the farm.
• Restrict visitors to the specific areas required for their task(s). Post signs to inform visitors of rules to follow while on farm.
• Do not allow visitors to bring food articles with them on the farm.
• Visitors should be provided with new plastic shoe covers, clean rubber boots, or they must brush and then disinfect their shoes/boots with appropriate disinfectant before and after visiting the operation. Disinfectant will not work unless surfaces are clean and an adequate contact time is allowed.
• Visitors who will have contact with animals must wear clean coveralls.
• Visitors must wash their hands thoroughly with soap before and after accessing animal areas.

• Limit access to your farm through gated entry sites that are clearly posted with signs.
• Post signs advising visitors that this is a biosecure area, and who to contact for entry permission.
• Lock gates and buildings when not in use.
• Repair and maintain fences.
• Fences should keep pastured animals away from roads and other farms.

• Maintain optimum ventilation and sanitation in all facilities.
• Designate a quarantine/isolation facility on your farm.

• • Make sure isolation facility is well away (> 100 yards) from nearest resident animals with no possibility for nose-to-nose contact.
  • Isolation facility should be managed as an “all in-all out” (all animals in/all animals out) facility with cleaning and disinfection between groups Locate all animal facilities as far away as possible from any public roads and neighboring farms.

• Lock all gates and storage buildings to keep secure while no one is working there.
• Store hazardous materials used on the farm (such as chemicals, fuels, pesticides, fertilizers) away from animal areas and feed areas and in secure locations with limited access. Maintain inventories and logs of these materials.
• Properly maintain equipment, buildings, fences, watering, feeding and waste management systems on a regular schedule.
• Reduce areas with standing water, drainage or run-off problems.
• Locate biosecurity high risk areas away from other animals, such as sick pens, isolation facilities and dead animal disposal.

• • Maintain strict entry/exit sanitation and traffic control for personnel working in these areas.
  • Clean and disinfect these areas between animals.
  • Restrict the use of each high-risk area to its intended purpose.

• Park vehicles away from animal facilities, feed storage areas, and manure handling routes. Park all vehicles in designated areas, preferably on hard surfaces such as concrete or asphalt. Dirt, mud or manure on vehicles must not be allowed on unpaved areas. Use signs and/or barriers to direct vehicles to the designated areas.
• Do not share vehicles, trailers or equipment with other farms, without cleaning and disinfecting between uses.
• Be prepared to disinfect vehicle tires and wheel wells during a disease. outbreak if a vehicle has to drive into flock production areas of your property.

• Buy feed from known, reliable vendors, and record all transactions.
• Store feed off the ground using feed tanks, pallets, barrels or containers with tight lids and smooth, cleanable surfaces.
• Protect feed from weather and moisture to prevent spoilage and mold growth. Remove and destroy spoiled feed and dispose of refused feed.
• Keep manure handling and feed handling equipment separate.
• Protect feed from vehicle and foot traffic, as well as from manure or urine run-off.
• Clean up and dispose of feed spills around storage bins and feed tanks to avoid attracting wild birds or rodents.
• Completely clean out all feed storage areas between shipments.
• Observe FDA guidelines about the feeding of animal byproducts to ruminants.
• Feed and equipment delivery points preferably should be located as close to the farm’s outside perimeter as possible.

• Use controlled water sources if available.
• Prevent contamination of water sources from manure or dead animals.
• Prevent animals from standing in the source of drinking water.
• Inspect the water delivery system daily and clean as necessary.

• Be aware of current Confined Animal Facility Operation (CAFO) laws and regulations.
• Locate manure storage areas away from animal areas and prevent run-off into feed or water sources.
• Remove waste, as needed, and transport it with designated equipment to a designated storage or disposal area.
• A void spreading manure where susceptible animals graze or allow adequate time between spreading and returning animals to pasture.

• Develop a written pest control program, including a regular service schedule.
• Follow directions on baiting chemicals and place where resident animals and farm pets do not have access.
• Rodents (mice, rats) – seal potential entry points in buildings to prevent rodent access. Eliminate piles of wood and debris that could serve as rodent hiding places.
• Insects (flies, darkling beetles, mosquitoes) – focus control measures on manure, waste feed, ponds and other areas which are their breeding grounds.
• Wildlife (wild birds, raccoons, opossums, skunks, deer, feral swine) – restrict contact with wild animals using proper fencing, pens or enclosed housing.
• Hunters should keep dead game away from their resident animals.
• Keep pets out of animal production sites, as they can spread disease too!

• Immediately dispose of all dead animals in an approved manner (such as, burial, incineration, composting, or landfill).
• Submit your animal for postmortem examination or have your veterinarian do an exam on the farm to determine cause of death.
• Provide a secure pick-up site away from public observation where dead stock vehicles do not have to enter or come near livestock.
• Confined animal facilities must dispose of dead animals using an approved method or site, as specified in the producer’s permitted Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan or Animal Facilities Management Plan. This management plan must provide both a normal and a catastrophic mortality disposal / treatment method. A catastrophic plan must be in place for a disease or natural event in which the mortality rate is higher than normal or more than the daily mortality plan options can handle.
• Arrange an inspection of sites for non-confined facilities (range animals) to pre-approve mass animal burial sites.

Exhibitions should be avoided if possible or follow the steps below to reduce bringing diseases back to your farm.

Before the Event

• Examine the animals before leaving for the event to make sure they are healthy.
• Clean and disinfect all equipment before it is taken to the event and prior to being returned after the event.

At the Event

• Limit contact between humans and animals and between the different groups of animals.
• Cover feed and equipment to reduce contamination.
• Do not share equipment unless cleaned and disinfected between users.

After the Event

• Change all clothing before returning home.
• Discard any leftover feed and bedding.
• Clean and disinfect equipment before loading for home.
• Isolate and monitor the animals after returning home (using traffic pattern rules and clothing changes you use for regular isolation areas).

Sheep or goats with these diseases need to stay on the farm until the animal recovers:

Diseases that are not visible but can cause abortions: