Disease can be brought on to your farm by dirty vehicles. Regardless of the type of vehicle, the highest risk are any vehicles which enter animal areas of the farm, for example:
- muck clearing, scraping and spreading vehicles
- vehicles distributing feed and bedding
- vehicles used to help in inspection of animals
- clipping trailers and foot crushes
Steps to protect your animals
The organisms which cause disease can survive for long periods on dirty vehicles. You can take steps to prepare your farm in order to protect your animals from these risks.
- Aim to keep your access roads clean and well maintained.
- Where possible have a single vehicle entrance and exit point to your farm.
- Consider having a post box at the road end or farm perimeter.
- Provide clear signs for visitors arriving on your farm.
- Provide a clean parking area outside the farm perimeter, away from animal areas.
- Provide cleaning and disinfection equipment and facilities for visitors and vehicles at entrance and exit.
Also consider
- Allow as few vehicles as possible to enter your farm.
- Minimise the movement of vehicles between your own farms.
- Use your own vehicles where possible, always cleaning and disinfecting vehicles after use.
- Livestock hauliers should always schedule enough cleaning, disinfection and down-time for livestock vehicles before going on to another farm. Use only hauliers you know and trust to do this.
- Allow only those visitors (and their vehicles) who respect your instructions, if vehicles are not clean on arrival, insist on cleaning or refuse entry.
- Keep people informed of disease risks on your farm, to allow precautions to be taken.
- Well maintained and repaired vehicles make cleaning and disinfection more effective.
Further information