Tag: biosecurity

SOP 2.0 Fire And General Safety

PURPOSE: the purpose of this SOP is to provide guidance in the situations where Fire is present or other safety hazards that are present on the farm and could endanger your safety or the safety of all livestock.

SOP 2.1 Fire and Safety Prevention

1. Absolutely no smoking, lit flame or source of combustion that be allowed within a 100m of barn, arena, stables hay or grain barn storage

2.1  All emergency exists shall be clearly identified and lit. Hallways and doorways shall be kept free of any and all debris. This is to maintain egress route

2.2.  CSA approved and recommended fire extinguisher are to be mounted at every exit including grain and hay storage areas.

2.3. All vehicular storage areas. Shall have good ventilation, longtime storage of batteries, fuels explosive equipment materials, shall be stored in a designated yellow cabinet of steel construction.

2.4 Farm Vehicles that do not have current plates and licensing that is current will be asked to remove the vehicle from the property.

2.5 Farm vehicles that have proof of licensing and registration are asked to place oil pan or equivalent to capture leaks

 

 

 

SOP 4.4 Manure Management Plan

Management of manure is a key step in controlling flies, larva and eggs, as well as minimizing odours.

The management plan will be as follows:

Stalls to be emptied of manure and bedding daily as needed and deposited into manure containment. Pastures to be cleaned of manure once a week.

Rationale: reducing the number of eggs interrupts the reproductive life cycle, and reduces population of flies

Minimal use of bedding that can absorb urine,

Rationale: bedding is slow to break down into a compostable product.

Manure will be stored and composted for use as fertilizer on the farm. Excess can be bagged and sold to the local community for profit or donated to family/community garden plots  Rationale: giving back to the community is one of our pillars of success.

A vermiculture composting system will be established to ensure high quality of compost is produced.

References

http://www.nvca.on.ca/Shared%20Documents/Manure%20Management%20in%20the%20Equine%20Landscape.pdf

 

SOP 4.3 Pest and Insect Control

Pest and Insect control is an important part of the horse health management.

Focus areas are:  Pastures, stalls, manure pits

Rationale: Flies, larvae and eggs are found in manure that remains in pastures, stalls and manure pits. Removal of manure and proper disposal will reduce the load available for the horse to digest and thus reduce the overall load in the horse(s).

Procedure: All stalls to be cleaned a min of once per day depending on how much time is spent in stall.

Use shavings in stalls to soak up liquids,

Ensure to sweep all debris from hay and grain and dispose of in garbage bin sealed from rodents

Remove all manure from small paddocks twice a week(1)

Dispose of manure in manure pits with concrete pad. Disposing of manure in a field contributes to the problem, as rain soaks ground, runoff is created, manure now becomes breeding ground for flies and larvae) (2)

References:

(1) Zimmel, D. (2009). Ch. 5: Equine wellness program. In D. Reeder et al. (Eds.), AAEVT’S Equine manual for veterinary technicians (summary of parasite control measures p142)

(2) http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/engineer/facts/07-045.htm#11

SOP 5.1 Biosecurity Plan Visitors

Visitors to the Farm

Intent: Intent of this SOP is to reduce the spread of disease between farms and livestock transmitted by visitors.

Means:

To accomplish this:

  1.  All visitors will sign in to the log book at the entrance of the barn,
  2. All Visitors shall clean hands between handling all livestock either by using the hand sanitizers provided or by washing hands with warm soapy water.
  3. Any person who has visited a farm immediately prior to ours, will either change footwear or disinfect the footwear worn by spraying the footwear and soles with Virkon (potassium monopersulphate) and water solution.
  4. Visitors will obey all posted signs and not enter any restricted area without authorization from the staff.
  5. Isolation areas are off-limits to all pers except staff

Ref:

  1. National Farm and Facility Level Biosecurity Standard for the Equine Sector
  2. Code of Practice for the care and handling of Equines
  3. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/prev-disease-spread.htm#introduction

 

SOP 5.0 Biosecurity Plan- Purpose and Intent

Purpose of this biosecurity plan is to reduce the incidence and impact of disease within the farm population. As well as reduce spread of disease between farms

To achieve this, we will monitor our practices by using the Equine Guelph Biosecurity Risk Calculator three times a year. Keeping a copy of the printed results will enable us to quantify and qualify our progress.

Identifying the disease risks for the farm and facility and how they are transmitted, as well as how to mitigate an outbreak should one occur, will assist us in keeping any illness to a minimum

Review management practices after each assessment.

Keep detailed health records of each horse.

Keep a sign in log of all visitors to the property.

Ref:

  1. National Farm and Facility Level Biosecurity Standard for the Equine Sector, section 4 and 5
  2. Code of Practice for the care and handling of Equines, section 4 Health Management
  3. Equine Guelph Biosecurity calculator,  http://www.equineguelph.ca/Tools/biosecurity_2011.php

Standard Operating Procedure 3.1- Vaccination Protocol

Action Point: Establish vaccination protocols

Rationale: Purpose and intent of this SOP is to provide direction on the vaccination of horses within the herd, to increase resistance to disease

  1. In consultation with  the vet, a vaccination schedule for each horse shall be outlined and recorded in the horses’ health record. (1)
  2. Broodmares are to receive appropriate vaccines for this area.
  3. Foals will also receive proper vaccinations with primary and booster vaccines
  4. any adverse effects to the vaccine shall also be recorded as well as the vaccines serial , lot number and expiry dates. (2) Rationale: Recording this information will be useful in the event of a reaction and if the vaccine itself is recalled.

REF:

1.National Farm And Facility Level Biosecurity Standard for the Equine Sector, Section 4 Principles of Infection Prevention and Control Programs, Methods of Pathogen Transmission,

2. Code of Practice for the care and handling of Equines, Section 4.1.2 Vaccines