What is Disease Avoidance?

There are many things which you can do to protect your animals from disease, and so improve their health and welfare.  These actions also have a public health benefit, as many animal diseases can be transferred to people.

Biosecurity, or Bio-risk, is a term often used to describe the complete package of actions and measures which focuses on disease avoidance:

  • Biosecurity enables you to assess and reduce the risk of disease, supporting you in keeping your animals healthy and improving their productivity
  • Biosecurity translates as ‘safe life’ and helps prevent disease reaching your farm and contain it if does arrive
  • This will safeguard:
    • The health of all your animals and birds, at all stages of production
    • Everyone involved in animal care
    • The wider farming community and its ability to trade
    • Against all types of infectious organisms which cause disease
  • Biosecurity is a way of life:
    • For everyone and all animals, not only for elite herds or flocks
    • For everyday, not only during outbreaks of serious disease