Tag: biosecurity

Biosecurity Action Point – Hand Sanitizers

Action Point: Add hand sanitizers to barn aisles every five horses alternating on different sides of the aisle and at all entrances with explanatory short sign.

Rationale: Hand hygiene is considered essential to infectious disease control in human medicine, and in veterinary medicine (Scheftel et al. 2010). Since going to the washroom between horses is inefficient, I think that having hand sanitizers easily accessible with clear explanations as to how they are a simple way that can reduce biosecurity risk, will encourage people to use them more.

  • Source: Scheftel, J.M., Elchos, B.L., Cherry, B., et al. (2010). Compendium of veterinary standard precautions for zoonotic disease prevention in veterinary personnel: National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians Veterinary Infection Control Committee 2010. J Am Vet Med Assoc., 237:1403–1422 Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21155680
This is the sign that we would be using for our Hand Sanitizer stations in the barn

Isolated Horse Pen

Action Point: Design a Quarantine paddock for new horses coming onto the property, and design a disease questionnaire that is handed out before the horse comes to the farm.

Rationalle: We have horses coming and going every summer whether it be for exercising, training or boarders.
Ruff (2011) suggests sending out a list of barn rules and expectations to the owners before the horse comes to the property. Additionally, creating a “disease questionnaire” is important because it can get some answers to some important questions. Some of these questions may be ‘Has the horse visited any shows lately’.
The isolation paddock should be safe for the horse and have enough Hay or pasture to keep the horse happy and well looked after for at least 3 weeks before they are added to any current herd on the property.

Source:
Ruff, S (2011). Creating a Horse Quarantine
https://thehorse.com/119857/creating-a-horse-quarantine/