December 11, 2024 • 37 mins
What if there were simple steps you could take to safeguard your herd and secure food supplies from devastating diseases? Join us as Dr. Julia Herman, a respected beef cattle specialist veterinarian from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, shares her wealth of knowledge on livestock biosecurity. Dr. Herman's journey through the world of veterinary outreach and education reveals the importance of effective communication with producers and the creation of dynamic biosecurity plans tailored to the ever-changing landscape of agricultural operations.
Discover the invaluable lessons Dr. Herman learned from her experience managing foot and mouth disease in Uganda, which highlight the power of straightforward yet effective biosecurity measures. We explore how continuous evaluation of biosecurity plans—accounting for factors like animal movement, visitor tracking, and environmental changes—can make a significant difference in preventing disease outbreaks. The critical role of biosecurity managers is underscored, along with the importance of leveraging external resources such as veterinarians and extension specialists for a comprehensive approach to disease prevention.
Tune in to learn practical strategies for livestock producers, from cleaning and disinfecting equipment to protective gear usage and understanding the risks of common diseases like salmonella and E. coli. Dr. Herman emphasizes the necessity of controlling interactions between wild and domestic animals to mitigate disease spread, especially in the face of challenges like avian influenza. By focusing on proactive biosecurity measures, you can ensure the health of your herds and the safety of our food supply, one step at a time.
Resources Mentioned:
- https://www.bqa.org/resources/biosecurity-resources
- https://extension.umn.edu/poultry-health/avian-influenza-basics-noncommercial-poultry-flock-owners
- https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/fs-manage-wildlife-prevent-ai.508.pdf
- https://www.bqa.org/beef-quality-assurance-certification
- https://nationaldairyfarm.com/dairy-farm-standards/farm-biosecurity/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Aloha.
Today's episode is sponsored bythe Livestock Extension Group
out of the University of HawaiiManoa College of Tropical
Agriculture and Human Resilience, the Center for Ag
Profitability out of theUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln
and the Western SustainableAgriculture Research and
Education Program.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Aloha and welcome to the Livestock Bala'au, a podcast
aimed to provide educationalsupport, information, guidance
and outreach to our livestockstakeholders in Hawaii and the
US.
We are your hosts, mele Washiroand Shannon Sand, and today we
will be talking with Dr JuliaHerman, our beef cattle
specialist veterinarian with theNational Cattlemen's Beef
Association, or NCBA.
(00:52):
Thank you, dr Herman, forjoining us today.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Excited to be here.
Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yeah, yeah, we're excited to talk and learn more
about yourself and your positionand talk more about some
biosecurity things that we canshare with our producers.
I guess, maybe if you want tojust start to share a little bit
with us about your backgroundand your kind of current
position.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Sure.
So, julia Herman, I've beenwith the National Cattlemen's
Beef Association for the lastfive years as their beef cattle
specialist veterinarian.
I do a lot of the education,development and veterinary
outreach for the producereducation team and one of those
major programs we have on ourproducer ed team is the Beef
(01:37):
Quality Assurance Program whichMellie is very familiar with
since she is one of the Hawaiistate coordinators.
But my background is a littlebit of everything.
I have a wildlife backgroundprior to getting into vet school
, so some research behind that.
I studied infectious disease formy master's, studying
(01:59):
brucellosis and epidemiologyprior to getting into vet school
, graduated I guess all three ofmy degrees are from Colorado
State University.
And then I went into privatepractice in Kansas, primarily
working on cow-calf in thecow-calf industry.
Came back to CSU to the vetschool and taught as a clinical
(02:22):
instructor in the livestocksection, so teaching vet
students mostly.
And then in my current role I'mstill in an education role but
it's to the entire beef industrywhich is really exciting.
So anyone from producers of twohead to over 100,000 head and
then the veterinarians and theindustry stakeholders that all
(02:44):
play a role in that.
So it's pretty exciting.
I get to.
I get to say that my, that thebeef industry is my client.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So I was gonna say it does sound like you like, based
on your career trajectory thatyou enjoy doing education or
training or facilitation of somesort.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So yeah, and that wasn't something that I really
even realized until, like inhindsight.
You see all these differentthings You're like, oh,
education is a piece of everyaspect of what I have done, as
in my career, not just as aveterinarian, but as I was even
as that two-way education.
I love learning from theproducers and then, you know,
(03:29):
hopefully we can shareinformation, going back and
forth, and help them get betterin some way.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Honestly, some of my favorite articles and just the
things I get the most questionson are things that, like I never
would have thought to ask, butproducers brought them up to me
and I was just like, oh OK, likeI'm going to research this more
and then, like, talk about it,and I think that's sometimes
that's what happens.
I love the two-way street.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, yeah.
Sometimes I think the placewhere I learned the most right
is in those conversations withproducers and I think where
Shannon and I thought about thepodcast being a way for us to
kind of do that right, and Ithink we've learned a lot.
Having different people on andpanels and and whatnot, whatnot
(04:09):
it gets tough when you have morethan you know three, four or
five, I forget what the total wehad six people, I think at one
point, but that was a lot.
But it's great because you do.
You have that, that two-waylearning ability between
yourself and the producersanybody you're talking with, so
very cool.
Well, I think we're here todayto talk a little bit about
biosecurity and and with ourbeef cattle as well.
So I think, julia, do you wantto talk more?
(04:32):
I think we talked aboutbiosecurity before, but I feel
like there's so much to it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
There's a lot to cover.
We could probably do a wholelike year long series on it.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
quite frankly, probably do a whole like year
long series on it.
Quite frankly, yeah, and I meanI don't want people to feel
overwhelmed, but it's somethingthat I think you can, you can
think about in every day.
Right, we have to think aboutit every day, we have to think
about it as a big plan and maybeyou can help us figure out a
better guided way to deal withbiosecurity and build that plan
for our own herds.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Absolutely, yeah, biosecurity.
Sometimes it can be dauntingwhen you're thinking about all
the different ways that you canimplement biosecurity.
And so I start off with adefinition so everyone knows
what I'm talking about, becausedepending on the audience or the
group, biosecurity might have alittle bit different definition
.
But I think about preventingdiseases, or the germs and the
(05:26):
pathogens that cause thosediseases, from getting onto your
operation.
But there's also a layer ofthat of biocontainment, and so
if, say, you have sick animalson your farm, you want to make
sure that it's not spread toother animals on the farm but
also off your farm.
So biocontainment is, if youhave that disease, you're
protecting animals or you'rekeeping it as contained as
(05:47):
possible.
And so I think a lot of thethings that we talk about with
biosecurity, especially in ourlivestock, I'm going to I'm
going to broaden it to livestock, because a lot of the
principles apply.
Whether you have beef cattle,dairy cattle, poultry, pigs,
anything, all the principlesapply.
But a lot of it isunderstanding the different
(06:09):
routes of transmission of that.
Different diseases can can geton, so and then you try to
basically interrupt that thatpathway of that disease coming
onto your farm.
So some, I think in the beefcattle industry.
Some of the examples that Ithink are very pertinent and
some producers are likely doingon a daily basis already.
(06:31):
You know, maybe they arequarantining their new animal,
their new incoming animals,keeping those new animals
separate from your home herdbecause you don't want them
introducing anything to yourherd.
But it I'm going to pull thetwo-way street thing you also
(06:51):
don't want your home herdgetting your new animals sick
either, and so quarantininganimals separately when they
come onto the farm is a reallyimportant way to decrease those
diseases coming onto your farm.
Vaccination or, you know,having a herd health plan with
your veterinarian, that's hugein biosecurity.
(07:11):
There's a lot of overlapbetween that herd health plan
and the biosecurity plan.
There are a lot of vaccines, alot of diseases that we can
vaccinate against that have likenear like very great immunity.
So like, think about ourclostridial vaccines.
Those are very, those are veryeffective in preventing
clostridium, as long as you do,as long as you follow the label
(07:35):
and dosage and make sure thosevaccines are handled
appropriately.
There are other vaccines thatthey may not prevent the disease
completely but they decreasethe severity of the disease.
So that's all of our bovinerespiratory disease pathogens.
So vaccination is one piece ofit.
Nutrition, like the nutrition ofwhat you're giving those
(07:57):
animals, is also part ofbiosecurity.
Because if those animals are,if there's poor nutrition or,
you know, not high quality feedthat's not allowing their immune
system to be as strong aspossible, then they're not able
to fight off whatever they mightcome into contact with.
Nutrition is huge.
Bqa talks about low-stresscattle handling or low-stress
(08:18):
handling period.
The more we can decrease stress, the better those animals are
producing, they are doing theirjob and it also helps them heal
if they happen to be sick.
So biosecurity is not just and Ihaven't even talked about
cleaning your boots or washingyour hands Biosecurity is
(08:41):
all-encompassing and it touchesa lot of different ways, a lot
of different aspects of raisingcattle.
So cleaning and disinfectingequipment, maybe you're moving
from your you don't go from youradult animals to your young
animals.
You start with your younganimals because their immune
(09:02):
system isn't as strong, then yougo up to your adult animals.
You start with your younganimals because their immune
system isn't as strong, then yougo up to your adult animals.
So there's these differentpatterns that you can, that
behavior patterns that you cando to improve biosecurity on a
daily basis too.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Okay, I have a real quick question about the
quarantining.
So I live in Nebraska, soquarantining new animals from
your existing herd or existinganimals would be super easy.
Just because most people outhere have large swaths and
chunks of land, what is therecommendation for spacing?
Because I think of like Hawaii,right, yeah, much smaller land
(09:38):
mass and most, most people I'mthinking livestock and cattle,
but even poultry again have muchsmaller spaces.
So how much space forquarantining needs to be?
Do they need to be apart?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I was like maybe that's a silly question.
Separation no, that's yeah.
Separation, yeah.
What's the distance that theyshould be separated from?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
yeah uh, uh, sorry to put you on the spot.
No, I it's a great questionBecause I mean we do.
There are a lot of diversifiedoperations where it's not just
you're not just dealing with onespecies, yeah, and I think a
big piece to it, even if, like,ideally, they're, you know, not
nose to nose contact.
So maybe it's, you know,something as simple as five to
(10:21):
10 feet.
I think about it.
I think about it like on dairyoperations when we have calves
and hutches.
Those hutches are a certainwidth apart, because one, we
don't want them touching noses,but if they cough we don't want
that, those aerosols to be goingvery far.
So I mean, it could be assimple as three to 10 feet.
(10:41):
But even if we can just preventnose to nose contact, make also
make sure that there's not,they're not sharing a water
source or a feed source.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Okay, that makes sense.
It's kind of common sensethings, but sometimes I still
need them pointing out.
Well, it's and it's.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
I think we underestimate sometimes how easy
certain pathogens or germs canspread, and fomites or those
inanimate objects.
So that could be your equipment, your needles, your trucks and
trailers, your boots, yourclothing.
But even on feed or in thewater those can be ways that
(11:20):
diseases get transmitted, and sojust keeping those things
separate is very helpful.
And even if you're, I meanbiosecurity isn't perfect and
you do have to adapt it towhatever your situation is.
So maybe if you do have fenceline contact, maybe you know,
maybe you put a board up inbetween those fences or
(11:42):
something so you can't have thatnose to nose contact.
Or if you have to share awaterer, maybe you keep one side
of it empty while you'requarantining the animals.
So there's some different,there's some different ways that
you can incorporate it.
But yeah, it depends a lot onthe environment.
That's there, the resourcesthat are available.
But it also like I meanresources as in equipment, but
(12:04):
also resources as in people too.
I mean, you don't want it toohard on the people.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I've known of folks thathave just areas that are like
trees or shrubs or whatnot inbetween too, and that's
typically their, theirquarantined areas that they
would use and, you know, havethat separation.
I mean they might've beencloser than three feet, but
having the bush in between atleast you know, it's pretty
(12:29):
thick and bushy in some of thoseareas that I'm thinking of.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
So I was like that's a that's a lot of work for a cow
to get through, if they reallywanted to.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Well, and we talk a lot about, so biosecurity.
When you implement thosepractices, you're lowering risk
or you're mitigating risk.
There's no such thing as zerorisk.
Zero risk is, if you know Ithink of like bubble boy, you
know, like it's completelyseparated the air, the water,
nothing is getting in or out.
That's not possible in thelivestock industry, as much as
(13:01):
our like our commercial poultryand our commercial swine
comrades have tried like theytry to, it's really a
minimization.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So, like one of my colleagues actually owns a
poultry barn and I mean I knowthe steps they take and it's a
lot, but it's still not likeit's not zero.
Yeah, yeah, and what you thinkabout, you talk about the steps
they take and it's a lot butit's still not like it's not
zero, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
And when you think about you talk about the fomites
, and you know we might thinkonly about the brushes, the
buckets, the boots and stuff,but then you have the varmint
that go through, right, I mean,you might have mice, you might
have other birds or rats and,like here, a mongoose is the one
thing.
You know that that can go backand forth between things.
So, yeah, it's not yeah.
(13:47):
So yeah, we will be able tocompletely keep everything out,
but the more we can do thebetter.
So, um, I know BQA has an NCB,has lots of resources.
Um, what?
What if someone was deciding,you know, trying to work out a
biosecurity plan for theiroperation, sort of where can
they go from a resources andwhat would be the steps that
they should take and whereshould they put that first
amount of energy right into?
I mean, if they're limited ontheir physical people that can
(14:10):
help them, what would be thebest options for them to start
to build their plan?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Sure.
So right when I started here,biosecurity became one of the
major things that BQA reallywanted to provide those
resources for cattle producersI'm going to say livestock
producers, because I mean youknow people who have sheep,
goats, whatever you can's calledthe Daily Biosecurity Plan for
(14:37):
Disease Prevention, which is along name, but it walks through
different topics or differentareas of your operation that you
can be paying attention to.
It's a point in time plan, soit's just evaluating.
The day that you do yourbiosecurity plan is the day that
you evaluate it.
(14:57):
Biosecurity changes.
It can change on a daily basis,depending on what you know.
Rain changes your biosecurityplan so.
But it goes through like who isyour biosecurity manager?
Who's on the operation?
Who's in charge of educatingand training people about
biosecurity procedures?
It's about animal movement.
(15:17):
How are you tracking thatanimal movement and recording it
?
What type of people?
Like a visitor log, what peopleare coming on and off your
operation.
So like a feed yard has a feedyard or a dairy might have a lot
more daily visitors than acow-calf operation.
But are you recording who'scoming on and off your property
that might be bringing you knowthat might be a disease risk on
(15:40):
and off your property that mightbe bringing you know that might
be a disease risk.
And then it has a number ofother things, including wildlife
and pest management, but alsodeveloping a premises map.
And so what this does is itlooks at your entire operation
and you are able to say if, or,you know, provide a line of
separation around the border ofyour operation.
(16:01):
And what that does is, if youare, if your farm is in
quarantine due to a diseaseoutbreak, where is the clean
side and the dirty side, towhere you keep your animals
protected from anything comingonto the operation?
And so that's the idea behindthis biosecurity plan is what
are the things that you're doingnow to protect yourself, and
(16:22):
what can yourself and what canwe be doing better?
We can always improve.
Bqa talks about continuousimprovement in all aspects of
how we raise animals, but alsoremember that biosecurity is a
verb, which means it's alwayschanging.
It's always adapting, changing,it's always adapting.
(16:44):
So you know if you get a newpuppy onto your farm, that's a
new biosecurity risk, becausethat puppy might be running back
and forth to other farms, youknow.
So we recommend people walkingthrough this biosecurity plan
with someone on their resourceteam, so that could be their
herd veterinarian, it could bean extension specialist.
Just getting those outside eyesonto the operation helps, I
(17:07):
guess helps people look beyondtheir blinders on what they're
doing on a daily basis.
But we recommend people doingthis at least once a year, but
maybe you do it once in thesummer and once in the winter
because those two seasons aregoing to be very different.
So BQA has that, has a fewresources.
We have a BQA biosecurityresources page that we'll link
(17:30):
in the show notes but that has avideo on how to build a
premises map.
It talks about a premises IDnumber, identification number
and why that would be important.
It also has the BQA biosecurityplan and then all those logs
that we talked about, all thoserecord keeping documents.
So animal movement log, peoplelog, et cetera.
(17:52):
All of those are also on thatpage so we have it in a one-stop
shop for you.
We partner a lot with otherprograms.
So even though I know there'snot a lot of dairy in Hawaii,
but the National Dairy FarmProgram also has a really great
biosecurity platform that youcan learn from, and so a lot of
(18:13):
our the barnyard partners, soswine and poultry also, and
sheep, sheep and wool also havebiosecurity resources, so you
can check out all of theirwebsites for the same thing.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Nice and I think you make a good point with, like
being able to revisit it, likethroughout the year.
But also, I just think of likeif you think of the news that
has come out within the lastcouple of years, there's just
been a myriad of things comingin, come out within the last
couple of years.
There's just been a myriad ofthings coming in.
So I was like being able to,what like when that happens,
recheck your plan and make a newplan or update it.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
So yeah and just, uh, I mean it doesn't have to be.
Um, when I'm walking throughbiosecurity plans with with
folks, I I mean it doesn't haveto be you have to change 10
major things all at once.
It's.
Maybe it's you, uh, you know,maybe you designate a parking
lot for visitors on youroperation, so they are, they
only have access to one piece ofyour property.
(19:12):
Maybe it's you have a sign-insheet for your visitors.
Maybe you provide overboots forvisitors, so they're not, you
know, so they're not bringing,they're tracking things onto
your operation.
The example.
So one of the really uniqueexperiences I got to do right
when I got to NCBA was Itraveled to Uganda to study foot
(19:35):
and mouth disease in an endemiccountry.
So foot and mouth disease isalways there, and so how do we
learn from them on how theymanage foot and mouth disease on
a daily basis?
Because foot and mouth diseaseis a foreign animal disease
that's not found in the US.
It hasn't been here since 1929.
Yeah, um, we don't want it here.
Yeah, uh, but we, but we canlearn from them, and one of the
(19:58):
lessons that I that I uh learnedfrom.
So we were evaluating anoutbreak at farm.
A farm a was had sick animals.
So farm b and farm c came tohelp, because we are all like
everybody in ag wants to helpeach other.
Yeah, farm B and C ended uptaking foot and mouth disease
back to their home, their back,to their animals.
(20:20):
So I think about, I don't know,do you guys brand in Hawaii,
yep, okay.
So that's what I think about.
Like, when you have a branding,how many different operations
are present at one branding, anddid they come in clean clothes?
Did they wash their shoesbefore they came?
Did they clean off their horsesand their tack before they come
(20:43):
the top?
But in in the situation withfoot and mouth disease, that was
a very easy way that that viruswent from one farm to the other
.
And so I think there are waysthat we can just rethink our
daily, our daily activities andjust do really quick things that
could decrease the risk ofspreading that disease spreading
(21:07):
any diseases by orders ofmagnitude.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, I'm glad you you brought that up because I
always, you know, I neverthought about it growing up.
You know we just went, you went, you went and helped somebody
at the branding, you didwhatever you know and whatnot.
And now that I've spent moretime in the position I'm in and
thinking about the differentrisks and I think risk now for
different diseases and virusesare there's more out there than
(21:31):
what there was 10, 15, 20 yearsago.
But you know that's a big thinghere in Hawaii.
I mean, everybody goes to helpeach other's families on
brandings and you know we try tocontinue to share.
But it's important, you knowpeople to think about just basic
things of you know, picking outyour horse's feet at your home
before you pick it out atsomeone else's property.
(21:53):
And we have another invasivespecies or spittle bug on one
part of the Big Island where I'mat in Kona.
That's only on the Big Islandright now and that was the one
thing we were talking about wasbecause, you know, is there
potential for the eggs from thisspittle bug to transfer in the
hooves of the animals?
(22:13):
We don't know, you know, andunless we do something to go out
there and study this, wewouldn't know.
So just be cautious aboutthings.
And that was one of the thingswe had told people was you know,
pick your animals, feed outbefore you can go on.
Before you load them into thetrailer, you'll leave that stuff
at your home property.
Um, we had a problem or we had abreakout of strangles at one
point a few years ago and it was, you know, um, spread over at a
(22:37):
I, I believe it was from arodeo and you know, people
shared bits and you know allthose types of things that you
know that we may not think aboutbecause we're just like, oh,
you're just being nice to helpsomeone, but then you know, in
the, in the end it can, you know, can hinder some other things.
So it's a good thing to thinkabout before you go.
I mean, spray your boots, ifyou can, you know, clean your
(22:59):
horses, clean your tack, makesure, you know we, um, with the
spittle bog on the big island,we making sure to tell people if
you're throwing your tack onthe ground or your bags.
Just make sure you shake it outbefore you go so you don't have
any hitchhikers in your bagswhen you go.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
That's a big thing and you all, uh, I mean because
you're an island, yeah, you're.
I mean, the risk of invasivescoming in is so, is so high, and
so I think, um, I think yourproducers likely already have an
idea of how to protect theiroperation, but it's again just
(23:34):
thinking of how can we applythat from your island?
You know, not just a state, buteach island has its own
biosecurity, yeah, but then alsoyour own ranch has its own
biosecurity within that island,and so there's a lot of
different levels you can takethat to.
But, yeah, that's reallyinteresting.
And, yes, livestock exhibitionevents, petting zoos we talk
(24:00):
about this not just from animalto animal transmission, but
animal to human transmission.
So zoonotic diseases are onesthat we can, that humans can get
from animals, and this isanother thing where I think we
in ag uh, sometimes don'tprotect ourselves as well as we
should.
Um, because you're just like,oh, I'm in poop all the time, no
(24:22):
big deal, and I was like, well,you can still get.
I mean, there's a lot ofbacteria and viruses that live
in in our animals, uh, evenhealthy animals.
So even you know, salmonellaand e coli is still in a healthy
animal, and if your immunesystem is not strong, you could
still get that disease.
Um, but other things we thinkabout, like uh, do you guys have
(24:44):
rabies in hawaii?
no, we don't okay, well, that'sthat's fantastic.
Yes, um, but that's a that'slike a zoonotic disease
nightmare that we have that whenI'm talking to people stateside
, because rabies shows up asanything and that can be
something that's really scary.
There's a lot of you know.
(25:05):
I mean that's that's one reasonwe pasteurize dairy products
there, because you prevent thatzoonotic disease transmission
there, for anything fromlisteria to Q fever, coxiella
there's a whole slew of thingsthat we can get from
unpasteurized milk.
So, like I guess I'mchallenging our livestock
(25:27):
producers and our ag folks toremember that we can get sick
from the animals too.
One of the biggest things thatI and this is from a veterinary
side also, and I was bad aboutthis in practice in hindsight
again, you learn a lot of thingsin hindsight, that's life in
(25:48):
general.
Right, but any of our animalsthat are calving or lambing or
kidding, um, there are a lot ofdiseases that we could actually
get from those birthing fluidsif you have, uh, if you're, if
your animal, or if the animal'saborting, or if they have a
stillborn animal.
So, um, leptospirosiscampylobacter.
(26:09):
There's a lot of things that wecan get from those birthing
fluids, and so I tell people ifyour hand is going anywhere near
an orifice of an animal, so themouth, the rectum, the vagina,
you need to have gloves on,because it's just one way to
keep yourself safe.
So, again, so that's notsomething very challenging to do
(26:32):
, you just implement make sureyou're wearing gloves.
If you have an aborting animal,maybe you know, maybe you throw
a mask on and some goggles justto make sure that those fluids
don't get into your, your eyesor into your mouth, cause those
are ways that you can getinfected.
So there are some simple thingsthat people can implement on a
daily basis that, uh, couldreally be protective in the long
(26:53):
run.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, and I think sometimes we
do just kind of brush it offcause you're always in it, right
that you just like, oh, it'sokay, I don't need to do that
right now, but yeah, in the inthe long run of leptospirosis is
a big thing here, um, and I Iknow that a few veterinarians
that and technicians that havegot it, as well as brucellosis.
So you know, it's not somethingthat we all think about and I
(27:17):
think those that have gotten itnow are a lot more cautious
about things.
So, yeah, protect yourself whenyou can.
You know, I mean it's alwaysbest to do that.
But you know, and I think youknow talking about zoonotics.
I think that brings us toanother another point and maybe
we wanted to touch about,because we, you know, recently
(27:37):
had gotten even influenzaidentified here in our state,
and so that's another point.
It's tough in biosecurity whenyou're in a cow calf sort of
operation and even with ourpoultry, because majority of
them are outside in little youknow, yards and whatnot.
I know your background is inbeef, but we've been talking
(27:58):
about it right in the beefindustry and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Do you want to touch a little bit about high path and
all those things that we can doyeah, I mean, I think highly
pathogenic avian influenza is areally good example on what
happens when biosecurity failsand it's not just and I guess
(28:21):
it's it's sort of two separatesituations.
So I'm thinking about like onthe or on the state side.
You know, we we have avianinfluenza going through dairy
cattle at the moment and we havefor the past eight months,
eight or nine months, um, andthat that was from one single
(28:42):
spillover from wild birds andbut ever since then it's been
spread just within dairy cattleand so that's either animal to
animal or fomites.
So all your equipment or milkor anything like that.
For the recent outbreak inHawaii, that sounds like it was
from migratory birds because ofthe strain.
(29:03):
So we have to pay attention tothe strain of these, these avian
influenza outbreaks, but thestrain is from a wild bird and
so it's really it's challengingbecause you can't control wild
birds, right, yeah, so I talkedto people about what can you
control, and so maybe some ofthose things that people are
controlling are that access tofood and water.
(29:26):
So maybe during the outbreakmaybe you keep your poultry
fenced into a small area ormaybe even housed inside, if you
can handle it, to try toprevent that wild bird
interaction.
Maybe it's preventing nestingareas on your operation so those
(29:48):
wild birds aren't buildingnests and getting close to your
animals.
We talked about feed and water.
I think that's a huge piecewhere we protect.
We can protect from not justwild birds but you said it
earlier, with wild, with, withpests.
So it could be the mongoose, itcould be the, the rats or the
mice, but also stray cats anddogs can spread, you know, and
(30:15):
Maybe it's creating, you know,the more we can create barriers
between those wild birds and ouroperation.
I mean, that's where youminimize.
You can't control themmigrating over you, but you can
try to control how muchinteraction they have and how
much they can spread the diseaseto whatever equipment or
(30:36):
whatever animals you have.
So it's what you, it's what youcan control again, uh, another
uh, and I'm going to go off ofum, well, some of this comes
down to also hand hygiene, um,and just protect, again,
protecting yourself, right?
So if you're working with yourpoultry and doing anything well,
(30:56):
making sure you're payingattention if they're sick, if
they start coughing or if theystop eating chickens and poultry
or other poultry can getdiarrhea, so, like, if you see
any of those signs, you need tocall your veterinarian to make
sure you're figuring out what itmight be and if and if it's
(31:18):
something that humans need to beworried about.
So a lot of this comes down toknowing your animals, protecting
feed and water and theirexposure to wild birds or
whatever other diseases.
You know other diseases you'reworried about, but really having
that great relationship withyour veterinarian, that
(31:41):
veterinarian client patientrelationship is really key to
not just the veterinarian comingonto your farm, evaluating your
farm, providing treatment andproviding herd health plans, but
if something's, you know, ifyou have another flock that does
get high path, we need toreport that as quickly as
possible because we don't wantthat spreading to other people
(32:01):
or to other, to other farms.
So lots of layers that we can,lots of layers of lessons that
we can learn from a high pathoutbreak and apply that outside
of the, outside of poultry.
I mean, we know that poultry orthat high that avian influenza
can go between species and so inour farms, where we do have
(32:22):
multiple species again, maybethat's where we separate the
poultry from, you know, thegoats and the sheep, so that
they're not sharing the samewater.
You know, trying to protectyour other species also.
So it's lots of steps that youcan do that theoretically don't
take a lot of energy, but itdoes take some forethought to
(32:44):
make sure that we're doing itappropriately.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Yeah, and it's a good point.
You know, we got to work withinthe means that we have and the
abilities that we have, you know, and use that to develop sort
of the plan that we have, youknow, to be able to mitigate the
risk and in our flocks and inour herds, and that's a good
point, you know, if you have,you know, a lot of times we
house our poultry with our sheepor our smaller ruminants, and
(33:08):
you know, separating them andthen maybe working through your
small ruminants before goinginto your poultry is just
another, another way for you tomitigate that risk.
And yeah, it's a good, good,good point.
Well, I feel like we could justgo on about biosecurity and
stuff, because there's lots totalk about, but is there
anything else you wanna touch onor talk more about?
Speaker 4 (33:31):
You know, I think I do think that biosecurity is I
mean, and I'm biased, like Italk about biosecurity all the
time so I obviously think thatbiosecurity is I mean, and I'm
biased, like I talk aboutbiosecurity all the time so I
obviously think it's important,but it really is a cornerstone
to a healthy herd and evenhealthy humans.
And so the more that we canunderstand, the more you
(33:52):
understand your operation, themore you can understand what are
practical and implementableways that you can improve
biosecurity.
Again, you don't have to createa castle all the way around your
operation, but maybe you can dolittle things to decrease that
risk and making sure that you'reusing all your resources.
(34:15):
I know University of Hawaii hasa great extension network
Working with them, working withyour veterinarian, working with
your industry partners so NCBA,beef Quality Assurance or any of
our other barnyard folks we all, like all of us, have the goal
of a healthy animal, goodwelfare, good food supply.
(34:39):
So we're all working togetherto try to help people move in
that direction.
So I would tell producers tostart small and then just work
your way up.
And don't forget the trainingpiece to this.
I think, training everybody onthe operation to understand what
the biosecurity expectationsare on your operation and then
(35:03):
remember biosecurity changes.
So maybe having an annualtraining or annual events to
where you are learning somethingelse that you can be
implementing.
Bqa has that biosecurityresource page that again, we
will add to the show notes.
But we also have somecontinuing education online
modules that are focused onbiosecurity, and then we've also
(35:27):
improved both our BQAcertification modules and our
BQA transportation modules withimproved biosecurity tips.
So if you aren't already BQAcertified, I'd recommend
checking that out.
It gives you that foundation ofnot just biosecurity but all
those other aspects of caringfor your herd, but I think we
(35:51):
can.
Again, focusing on thatcontinuous improvement, we can
always be better and I mean, ifthere's any way that I can
continue to help both of you orany of your producers, that's
what our producer education teamdoes.
So we're we're open to ideas.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Yeah Well, we appreciate you taking the time
to to talk with us today andshare cause.
I think it's a.
Biosecurity is an important,important aspect.
Is Kenny becoming to be moreimportant, more important, you
know, in these days, with morethings coming in, unfortunately?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
I think, no matter what your livestock is,
biosecurities just more and more, yeah, yeah, the forefront,
yeah, higher importance.
So, yeah, all right.
Well, thank you so much forjoining us today, julia.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you, yes, and we hope ourlisteners.
Julia, we really appreciate it.
Thank you, yes, and we hope ourlisteners found this
informative and that it will beuseful to them.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
That's right and make sure to follow us on our social
media pages.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
The Livestock, Bala'au and Livestock Extension
Group, If you haven't already besure to visit the UHC TAR
Extension website and ourYouTube channel listed in the
show notes For additionalinformation about this topic.
See the show notes of thepodcast in the description box
of our YouTube page.
Thanks for listening to theLivestock Vala'au Before we go.
Show some love for yourfavorite podcast by leaving us a
review anywhere you listen tothis and then stay tuned for
(37:08):
next month's episode.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Yeah, thanks again to our sponsors the Livestock
Extension Group of theUniversity of Hawaii, manoa
College of Tropical Agricultureand Human Resilience, the Center
for Ag Profitability of theUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln
and the Western SustainableAgriculture Research and
Education Program.
Mahalo for listening, a hui hou.
A hui hou.
Aloha.
Today's episode is sponsored bythe Livestock Extension Group
out of the University of HawaiiManoa College of Tropical
Agriculture and Human Resilience, the Center for Ag
Profitability out of theUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln
and the Western SustainableAgriculture Research and
Education Program.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Aloha and welcome to the Livestock Bala'au, a podcast
aimed to provide educationalsupport, information, guidance
and outreach to our livestockstakeholders in Hawaii and the
US.
We are your hosts, mele Washiroand Shannon Sand, and today we
will be talking with Dr JuliaHerman, our beef cattle
specialist veterinarian with theNational Cattlemen's Beef
Association, or NCBA.
(00:52):
Thank you, dr Herman, forjoining us today.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Excited to be here.
Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yeah, yeah, we're excited to talk and learn more
about yourself and your positionand talk more about some
biosecurity things that we canshare with our producers.
I guess, maybe if you want tojust start to share a little bit
with us about your backgroundand your kind of current
position.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Sure.
So, julia Herman, I've beenwith the National Cattlemen's
Beef Association for the lastfive years as their beef cattle
specialist veterinarian.
I do a lot of the education,development and veterinary
outreach for the producereducation team and one of those
major programs we have on ourproducer ed team is the Beef
(01:37):
Quality Assurance Program whichMellie is very familiar with
since she is one of the Hawaiistate coordinators.
But my background is a littlebit of everything.
I have a wildlife backgroundprior to getting into vet school
, so some research behind that.
I studied infectious disease formy master's, studying
(01:59):
brucellosis and epidemiologyprior to getting into vet school
, graduated I guess all three ofmy degrees are from Colorado
State University.
And then I went into privatepractice in Kansas, primarily
working on cow-calf in thecow-calf industry.
Came back to CSU to the vetschool and taught as a clinical
(02:22):
instructor in the livestocksection, so teaching vet
students mostly.
And then in my current role I'mstill in an education role but
it's to the entire beef industrywhich is really exciting.
So anyone from producers of twohead to over 100,000 head and
then the veterinarians and theindustry stakeholders that all
(02:44):
play a role in that.
So it's pretty exciting.
I get to.
I get to say that my, that thebeef industry is my client.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So I was gonna say it does sound like you like, based
on your career trajectory thatyou enjoy doing education or
training or facilitation of somesort.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So yeah, and that wasn't something that I really
even realized until, like inhindsight.
You see all these differentthings You're like, oh,
education is a piece of everyaspect of what I have done, as
in my career, not just as aveterinarian, but as I was even
as that two-way education.
I love learning from theproducers and then, you know,
(03:29):
hopefully we can shareinformation, going back and
forth, and help them get betterin some way.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Honestly, some of my favorite articles and just the
things I get the most questionson are things that, like I never
would have thought to ask, butproducers brought them up to me
and I was just like, oh OK, likeI'm going to research this more
and then, like, talk about it,and I think that's sometimes
that's what happens.
I love the two-way street.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, yeah.
Sometimes I think the placewhere I learned the most right
is in those conversations withproducers and I think where
Shannon and I thought about thepodcast being a way for us to
kind of do that right, and Ithink we've learned a lot.
Having different people on andpanels and and whatnot, whatnot
(04:09):
it gets tough when you have morethan you know three, four or
five, I forget what the total wehad six people, I think at one
point, but that was a lot.
But it's great because you do.
You have that, that two-waylearning ability between
yourself and the producersanybody you're talking with, so
very cool.
Well, I think we're here todayto talk a little bit about
biosecurity and and with ourbeef cattle as well.
So I think, julia, do you wantto talk more?
(04:32):
I think we talked aboutbiosecurity before, but I feel
like there's so much to it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
There's a lot to cover.
We could probably do a wholelike year long series on it.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
quite frankly, probably do a whole like year
long series on it.
Quite frankly, yeah, and I meanI don't want people to feel
overwhelmed, but it's somethingthat I think you can, you can
think about in every day.
Right, we have to think aboutit every day, we have to think
about it as a big plan and maybeyou can help us figure out a
better guided way to deal withbiosecurity and build that plan
for our own herds.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Absolutely, yeah, biosecurity.
Sometimes it can be dauntingwhen you're thinking about all
the different ways that you canimplement biosecurity.
And so I start off with adefinition so everyone knows
what I'm talking about, becausedepending on the audience or the
group, biosecurity might have alittle bit different definition
.
But I think about preventingdiseases, or the germs and the
(05:26):
pathogens that cause thosediseases, from getting onto your
operation.
But there's also a layer ofthat of biocontainment, and so
if, say, you have sick animalson your farm, you want to make
sure that it's not spread toother animals on the farm but
also off your farm.
So biocontainment is, if youhave that disease, you're
protecting animals or you'rekeeping it as contained as
(05:47):
possible.
And so I think a lot of thethings that we talk about with
biosecurity, especially in ourlivestock, I'm going to I'm
going to broaden it to livestock, because a lot of the
principles apply.
Whether you have beef cattle,dairy cattle, poultry, pigs,
anything, all the principlesapply.
But a lot of it isunderstanding the different
(06:09):
routes of transmission of that.
Different diseases can can geton, so and then you try to
basically interrupt that thatpathway of that disease coming
onto your farm.
So some, I think in the beefcattle industry.
Some of the examples that Ithink are very pertinent and
some producers are likely doingon a daily basis already.
(06:31):
You know, maybe they arequarantining their new animal,
their new incoming animals,keeping those new animals
separate from your home herdbecause you don't want them
introducing anything to yourherd.
But it I'm going to pull thetwo-way street thing you also
(06:51):
don't want your home herdgetting your new animals sick
either, and so quarantininganimals separately when they
come onto the farm is a reallyimportant way to decrease those
diseases coming onto your farm.
Vaccination or, you know,having a herd health plan with
your veterinarian, that's hugein biosecurity.
(07:11):
There's a lot of overlapbetween that herd health plan
and the biosecurity plan.
There are a lot of vaccines, alot of diseases that we can
vaccinate against that have likenear like very great immunity.
So like, think about ourclostridial vaccines.
Those are very, those are veryeffective in preventing
clostridium, as long as you do,as long as you follow the label
(07:35):
and dosage and make sure thosevaccines are handled
appropriately.
There are other vaccines thatthey may not prevent the disease
completely but they decreasethe severity of the disease.
So that's all of our bovinerespiratory disease pathogens.
So vaccination is one piece ofit.
Nutrition, like the nutrition ofwhat you're giving those
(07:57):
animals, is also part ofbiosecurity.
Because if those animals are,if there's poor nutrition or,
you know, not high quality feedthat's not allowing their immune
system to be as strong aspossible, then they're not able
to fight off whatever they mightcome into contact with.
Nutrition is huge.
Bqa talks about low-stresscattle handling or low-stress
(08:18):
handling period.
The more we can decrease stress, the better those animals are
producing, they are doing theirjob and it also helps them heal
if they happen to be sick.
So biosecurity is not just and Ihaven't even talked about
cleaning your boots or washingyour hands Biosecurity is
(08:41):
all-encompassing and it touchesa lot of different ways, a lot
of different aspects of raisingcattle.
So cleaning and disinfectingequipment, maybe you're moving
from your you don't go from youradult animals to your young
animals.
You start with your younganimals because their immune
(09:02):
system isn't as strong, then yougo up to your adult animals.
You start with your younganimals because their immune
system isn't as strong, then yougo up to your adult animals.
So there's these differentpatterns that you can, that
behavior patterns that you cando to improve biosecurity on a
daily basis too.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Okay, I have a real quick question about the
quarantining.
So I live in Nebraska, soquarantining new animals from
your existing herd or existinganimals would be super easy.
Just because most people outhere have large swaths and
chunks of land, what is therecommendation for spacing?
Because I think of like Hawaii,right, yeah, much smaller land
(09:38):
mass and most, most people I'mthinking livestock and cattle,
but even poultry again have muchsmaller spaces.
So how much space forquarantining needs to be?
Do they need to be apart?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I was like maybe that's a silly question.
Separation no, that's yeah.
Separation, yeah.
What's the distance that theyshould be separated from?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
yeah uh, uh, sorry to put you on the spot.
No, I it's a great questionBecause I mean we do.
There are a lot of diversifiedoperations where it's not just
you're not just dealing with onespecies, yeah, and I think a
big piece to it, even if, like,ideally, they're, you know, not
nose to nose contact.
So maybe it's, you know,something as simple as five to
(10:21):
10 feet.
I think about it.
I think about it like on dairyoperations when we have calves
and hutches.
Those hutches are a certainwidth apart, because one, we
don't want them touching noses,but if they cough we don't want
that, those aerosols to be goingvery far.
So I mean, it could be assimple as three to 10 feet.
(10:41):
But even if we can just preventnose to nose contact, make also
make sure that there's not,they're not sharing a water
source or a feed source.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Okay, that makes sense.
It's kind of common sensethings, but sometimes I still
need them pointing out.
Well, it's and it's.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
I think we underestimate sometimes how easy
certain pathogens or germs canspread, and fomites or those
inanimate objects.
So that could be your equipment, your needles, your trucks and
trailers, your boots, yourclothing.
But even on feed or in thewater those can be ways that
(11:20):
diseases get transmitted, and sojust keeping those things
separate is very helpful.
And even if you're, I meanbiosecurity isn't perfect and
you do have to adapt it towhatever your situation is.
So maybe if you do have fenceline contact, maybe you know,
maybe you put a board up inbetween those fences or
(11:42):
something so you can't have thatnose to nose contact.
Or if you have to share awaterer, maybe you keep one side
of it empty while you'requarantining the animals.
So there's some different,there's some different ways that
you can incorporate it.
But yeah, it depends a lot onthe environment.
That's there, the resourcesthat are available.
But it also like I meanresources as in equipment, but
(12:04):
also resources as in people too.
I mean, you don't want it toohard on the people.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I've known of folks thathave just areas that are like
trees or shrubs or whatnot inbetween too, and that's
typically their, theirquarantined areas that they
would use and, you know, havethat separation.
I mean they might've beencloser than three feet, but
having the bush in between atleast you know, it's pretty
(12:29):
thick and bushy in some of thoseareas that I'm thinking of.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
So I was like that's a that's a lot of work for a cow
to get through, if they reallywanted to.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Well, and we talk a lot about, so biosecurity.
When you implement thosepractices, you're lowering risk
or you're mitigating risk.
There's no such thing as zerorisk.
Zero risk is, if you know Ithink of like bubble boy, you
know, like it's completelyseparated the air, the water,
nothing is getting in or out.
That's not possible in thelivestock industry, as much as
(13:01):
our like our commercial poultryand our commercial swine
comrades have tried like theytry to, it's really a
minimization.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So, like one of my colleagues actually owns a
poultry barn and I mean I knowthe steps they take and it's a
lot, but it's still not likeit's not zero.
Yeah, yeah, and what you thinkabout, you talk about the steps
they take and it's a lot butit's still not like it's not
zero, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
And when you think about you talk about the fomites
, and you know we might thinkonly about the brushes, the
buckets, the boots and stuff,but then you have the varmint
that go through, right, I mean,you might have mice, you might
have other birds or rats and,like here, a mongoose is the one
thing.
You know that that can go backand forth between things.
So, yeah, it's not yeah.
(13:47):
So yeah, we will be able tocompletely keep everything out,
but the more we can do thebetter.
So, um, I know BQA has an NCB,has lots of resources.
Um, what?
What if someone was deciding,you know, trying to work out a
biosecurity plan for theiroperation, sort of where can
they go from a resources andwhat would be the steps that
they should take and whereshould they put that first
amount of energy right into?
I mean, if they're limited ontheir physical people that can
(14:10):
help them, what would be thebest options for them to start
to build their plan?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Sure.
So right when I started here,biosecurity became one of the
major things that BQA reallywanted to provide those
resources for cattle producersI'm going to say livestock
producers, because I mean youknow people who have sheep,
goats, whatever you can's calledthe Daily Biosecurity Plan for
(14:37):
Disease Prevention, which is along name, but it walks through
different topics or differentareas of your operation that you
can be paying attention to.
It's a point in time plan, soit's just evaluating.
The day that you do yourbiosecurity plan is the day that
you evaluate it.
(14:57):
Biosecurity changes.
It can change on a daily basis,depending on what you know.
Rain changes your biosecurityplan so.
But it goes through like who isyour biosecurity manager?
Who's on the operation?
Who's in charge of educatingand training people about
biosecurity procedures?
It's about animal movement.
(15:17):
How are you tracking thatanimal movement and recording it
?
What type of people?
Like a visitor log, what peopleare coming on and off your
operation.
So like a feed yard has a feedyard or a dairy might have a lot
more daily visitors than acow-calf operation.
But are you recording who'scoming on and off your property
that might be bringing you knowthat might be a disease risk on
(15:40):
and off your property that mightbe bringing you know that might
be a disease risk.
And then it has a number ofother things, including wildlife
and pest management, but alsodeveloping a premises map.
And so what this does is itlooks at your entire operation
and you are able to say if, or,you know, provide a line of
separation around the border ofyour operation.
(16:01):
And what that does is, if youare, if your farm is in
quarantine due to a diseaseoutbreak, where is the clean
side and the dirty side, towhere you keep your animals
protected from anything comingonto the operation?
And so that's the idea behindthis biosecurity plan is what
are the things that you're doingnow to protect yourself, and
(16:22):
what can yourself and what canwe be doing better?
We can always improve.
Bqa talks about continuousimprovement in all aspects of
how we raise animals, but alsoremember that biosecurity is a
verb, which means it's alwayschanging.
It's always adapting, changing,it's always adapting.
(16:44):
So you know if you get a newpuppy onto your farm, that's a
new biosecurity risk, becausethat puppy might be running back
and forth to other farms, youknow.
So we recommend people walkingthrough this biosecurity plan
with someone on their resourceteam, so that could be their
herd veterinarian, it could bean extension specialist.
Just getting those outside eyesonto the operation helps, I
(17:07):
guess helps people look beyondtheir blinders on what they're
doing on a daily basis.
But we recommend people doingthis at least once a year, but
maybe you do it once in thesummer and once in the winter
because those two seasons aregoing to be very different.
So BQA has that, has a fewresources.
We have a BQA biosecurityresources page that we'll link
(17:30):
in the show notes but that has avideo on how to build a
premises map.
It talks about a premises IDnumber, identification number
and why that would be important.
It also has the BQA biosecurityplan and then all those logs
that we talked about, all thoserecord keeping documents.
So animal movement log, peoplelog, et cetera.
(17:52):
All of those are also on thatpage so we have it in a one-stop
shop for you.
We partner a lot with otherprograms.
So even though I know there'snot a lot of dairy in Hawaii,
but the National Dairy FarmProgram also has a really great
biosecurity platform that youcan learn from, and so a lot of
(18:13):
our the barnyard partners, soswine and poultry also, and
sheep, sheep and wool also havebiosecurity resources, so you
can check out all of theirwebsites for the same thing.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Nice and I think you make a good point with, like
being able to revisit it, likethroughout the year.
But also, I just think of likeif you think of the news that
has come out within the lastcouple of years, there's just
been a myriad of things comingin, come out within the last
couple of years.
There's just been a myriad ofthings coming in.
So I was like being able to,what like when that happens,
recheck your plan and make a newplan or update it.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
So yeah and just, uh, I mean it doesn't have to be.
Um, when I'm walking throughbiosecurity plans with with
folks, I I mean it doesn't haveto be you have to change 10
major things all at once.
It's.
Maybe it's you, uh, you know,maybe you designate a parking
lot for visitors on youroperation, so they are, they
only have access to one piece ofyour property.
(19:12):
Maybe it's you have a sign-insheet for your visitors.
Maybe you provide overboots forvisitors, so they're not, you
know, so they're not bringing,they're tracking things onto
your operation.
The example.
So one of the really uniqueexperiences I got to do right
when I got to NCBA was Itraveled to Uganda to study foot
(19:35):
and mouth disease in an endemiccountry.
So foot and mouth disease isalways there, and so how do we
learn from them on how theymanage foot and mouth disease on
a daily basis?
Because foot and mouth diseaseis a foreign animal disease
that's not found in the US.
It hasn't been here since 1929.
Yeah, um, we don't want it here.
Yeah, uh, but we, but we canlearn from them, and one of the
(19:58):
lessons that I that I uh learnedfrom.
So we were evaluating anoutbreak at farm.
A farm a was had sick animals.
So farm b and farm c came tohelp, because we are all like
everybody in ag wants to helpeach other.
Yeah, farm B and C ended uptaking foot and mouth disease
back to their home, their back,to their animals.
(20:20):
So I think about, I don't know,do you guys brand in Hawaii,
yep, okay.
So that's what I think about.
Like, when you have a branding,how many different operations
are present at one branding, anddid they come in clean clothes?
Did they wash their shoesbefore they came?
Did they clean off their horsesand their tack before they come
(20:43):
the top?
But in in the situation withfoot and mouth disease, that was
a very easy way that that viruswent from one farm to the other
.
And so I think there are waysthat we can just rethink our
daily, our daily activities andjust do really quick things that
could decrease the risk ofspreading that disease spreading
(21:07):
any diseases by orders ofmagnitude.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, I'm glad you you brought that up because I
always, you know, I neverthought about it growing up.
You know we just went, you went, you went and helped somebody
at the branding, you didwhatever you know and whatnot.
And now that I've spent moretime in the position I'm in and
thinking about the differentrisks and I think risk now for
different diseases and virusesare there's more out there than
(21:31):
what there was 10, 15, 20 yearsago.
But you know that's a big thinghere in Hawaii.
I mean, everybody goes to helpeach other's families on
brandings and you know we try tocontinue to share.
But it's important, you knowpeople to think about just basic
things of you know, picking outyour horse's feet at your home
before you pick it out atsomeone else's property.
(21:53):
And we have another invasivespecies or spittle bug on one
part of the Big Island where I'mat in Kona.
That's only on the Big Islandright now and that was the one
thing we were talking about wasbecause, you know, is there
potential for the eggs from thisspittle bug to transfer in the
hooves of the animals?
(22:13):
We don't know, you know, andunless we do something to go out
there and study this, wewouldn't know.
So just be cautious aboutthings.
And that was one of the thingswe had told people was you know,
pick your animals, feed outbefore you can go on.
Before you load them into thetrailer, you'll leave that stuff
at your home property.
Um, we had a problem or we had abreakout of strangles at one
point a few years ago and it was, you know, um, spread over at a
(22:37):
I, I believe it was from arodeo and you know, people
shared bits and you know allthose types of things that you
know that we may not think aboutbecause we're just like, oh,
you're just being nice to helpsomeone, but then you know, in
the, in the end it can, you know, can hinder some other things.
So it's a good thing to thinkabout before you go.
I mean, spray your boots, ifyou can, you know, clean your
(22:59):
horses, clean your tack, makesure, you know we, um, with the
spittle bog on the big island,we making sure to tell people if
you're throwing your tack onthe ground or your bags.
Just make sure you shake it outbefore you go so you don't have
any hitchhikers in your bagswhen you go.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
That's a big thing and you all, uh, I mean because
you're an island, yeah, you're.
I mean, the risk of invasivescoming in is so, is so high, and
so I think, um, I think yourproducers likely already have an
idea of how to protect theiroperation, but it's again just
(23:34):
thinking of how can we applythat from your island?
You know, not just a state, buteach island has its own
biosecurity, yeah, but then alsoyour own ranch has its own
biosecurity within that island,and so there's a lot of
different levels you can takethat to.
But, yeah, that's reallyinteresting.
And, yes, livestock exhibitionevents, petting zoos we talk
(24:00):
about this not just from animalto animal transmission, but
animal to human transmission.
So zoonotic diseases are onesthat we can, that humans can get
from animals, and this isanother thing where I think we
in ag uh, sometimes don'tprotect ourselves as well as we
should.
Um, because you're just like,oh, I'm in poop all the time, no
(24:22):
big deal, and I was like, well,you can still get.
I mean, there's a lot ofbacteria and viruses that live
in in our animals, uh, evenhealthy animals.
So even you know, salmonellaand e coli is still in a healthy
animal, and if your immunesystem is not strong, you could
still get that disease.
Um, but other things we thinkabout, like uh, do you guys have
(24:44):
rabies in hawaii?
no, we don't okay, well, that'sthat's fantastic.
Yes, um, but that's a that'slike a zoonotic disease
nightmare that we have that whenI'm talking to people stateside
, because rabies shows up asanything and that can be
something that's really scary.
There's a lot of you know.
(25:05):
I mean that's that's one reasonwe pasteurize dairy products
there, because you prevent thatzoonotic disease transmission
there, for anything fromlisteria to Q fever, coxiella
there's a whole slew of thingsthat we can get from
unpasteurized milk.
So, like I guess I'mchallenging our livestock
(25:27):
producers and our ag folks toremember that we can get sick
from the animals too.
One of the biggest things thatI and this is from a veterinary
side also, and I was bad aboutthis in practice in hindsight
again, you learn a lot of thingsin hindsight, that's life in
(25:48):
general.
Right, but any of our animalsthat are calving or lambing or
kidding, um, there are a lot ofdiseases that we could actually
get from those birthing fluidsif you have, uh, if you're, if
your animal, or if the animal'saborting, or if they have a
stillborn animal.
So, um, leptospirosiscampylobacter.
(26:09):
There's a lot of things that wecan get from those birthing
fluids, and so I tell people ifyour hand is going anywhere near
an orifice of an animal, so themouth, the rectum, the vagina,
you need to have gloves on,because it's just one way to
keep yourself safe.
So, again, so that's notsomething very challenging to do
(26:32):
, you just implement make sureyou're wearing gloves.
If you have an aborting animal,maybe you know, maybe you throw
a mask on and some goggles justto make sure that those fluids
don't get into your, your eyesor into your mouth, cause those
are ways that you can getinfected.
So there are some simple thingsthat people can implement on a
daily basis that, uh, couldreally be protective in the long
(26:53):
run.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, and I think sometimes we
do just kind of brush it offcause you're always in it, right
that you just like, oh, it'sokay, I don't need to do that
right now, but yeah, in the inthe long run of leptospirosis is
a big thing here, um, and I Iknow that a few veterinarians
that and technicians that havegot it, as well as brucellosis.
So you know, it's not somethingthat we all think about and I
(27:17):
think those that have gotten itnow are a lot more cautious
about things.
So, yeah, protect yourself whenyou can.
You know, I mean it's alwaysbest to do that.
But you know, and I think youknow talking about zoonotics.
I think that brings us toanother another point and maybe
we wanted to touch about,because we, you know, recently
(27:37):
had gotten even influenzaidentified here in our state,
and so that's another point.
It's tough in biosecurity whenyou're in a cow calf sort of
operation and even with ourpoultry, because majority of
them are outside in little youknow, yards and whatnot.
I know your background is inbeef, but we've been talking
(27:58):
about it right in the beefindustry and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Do you want to touch a little bit about high path and
all those things that we can doyeah, I mean, I think highly
pathogenic avian influenza is areally good example on what
happens when biosecurity failsand it's not just and I guess
(28:21):
it's it's sort of two separatesituations.
So I'm thinking about like onthe or on the state side.
You know, we we have avianinfluenza going through dairy
cattle at the moment and we havefor the past eight months,
eight or nine months, um, andthat that was from one single
(28:42):
spillover from wild birds andbut ever since then it's been
spread just within dairy cattleand so that's either animal to
animal or fomites.
So all your equipment or milkor anything like that.
For the recent outbreak inHawaii, that sounds like it was
from migratory birds because ofthe strain.
(29:03):
So we have to pay attention tothe strain of these, these avian
influenza outbreaks, but thestrain is from a wild bird and
so it's really it's challengingbecause you can't control wild
birds, right, yeah, so I talkedto people about what can you
control, and so maybe some ofthose things that people are
controlling are that access tofood and water.
(29:26):
So maybe during the outbreakmaybe you keep your poultry
fenced into a small area ormaybe even housed inside, if you
can handle it, to try toprevent that wild bird
interaction.
Maybe it's preventing nestingareas on your operation so those
(29:48):
wild birds aren't buildingnests and getting close to your
animals.
We talked about feed and water.
I think that's a huge piecewhere we protect.
We can protect from not justwild birds but you said it
earlier, with wild, with, withpests.
So it could be the mongoose, itcould be the, the rats or the
mice, but also stray cats anddogs can spread, you know, and
(30:15):
Maybe it's creating, you know,the more we can create barriers
between those wild birds and ouroperation.
I mean, that's where youminimize.
You can't control themmigrating over you, but you can
try to control how muchinteraction they have and how
much they can spread the diseaseto whatever equipment or
(30:36):
whatever animals you have.
So it's what you, it's what youcan control again, uh, another
uh, and I'm going to go off ofum, well, some of this comes
down to also hand hygiene, um,and just protect, again,
protecting yourself, right?
So if you're working with yourpoultry and doing anything well,
(30:56):
making sure you're payingattention if they're sick, if
they start coughing or if theystop eating chickens and poultry
or other poultry can getdiarrhea, so, like, if you see
any of those signs, you need tocall your veterinarian to make
sure you're figuring out what itmight be and if and if it's
(31:18):
something that humans need to beworried about.
So a lot of this comes down toknowing your animals, protecting
feed and water and theirexposure to wild birds or
whatever other diseases.
You know other diseases you'reworried about, but really having
that great relationship withyour veterinarian, that
(31:41):
veterinarian client patientrelationship is really key to
not just the veterinarian comingonto your farm, evaluating your
farm, providing treatment andproviding herd health plans, but
if something's, you know, ifyou have another flock that does
get high path, we need toreport that as quickly as
possible because we don't wantthat spreading to other people
(32:01):
or to other, to other farms.
So lots of layers that we can,lots of layers of lessons that
we can learn from a high pathoutbreak and apply that outside
of the, outside of poultry.
I mean, we know that poultry orthat high that avian influenza
can go between species and so inour farms, where we do have
(32:22):
multiple species again, maybethat's where we separate the
poultry from, you know, thegoats and the sheep, so that
they're not sharing the samewater.
You know, trying to protectyour other species also.
So it's lots of steps that youcan do that theoretically don't
take a lot of energy, but itdoes take some forethought to
(32:44):
make sure that we're doing itappropriately.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Yeah, and it's a good point.
You know, we got to work withinthe means that we have and the
abilities that we have, you know, and use that to develop sort
of the plan that we have, youknow, to be able to mitigate the
risk and in our flocks and inour herds, and that's a good
point, you know, if you have,you know, a lot of times we
house our poultry with our sheepor our smaller ruminants, and
(33:08):
you know, separating them andthen maybe working through your
small ruminants before goinginto your poultry is just
another, another way for you tomitigate that risk.
And yeah, it's a good, good,good point.
Well, I feel like we could justgo on about biosecurity and
stuff, because there's lots totalk about, but is there
anything else you wanna touch onor talk more about?
Speaker 4 (33:31):
You know, I think I do think that biosecurity is I
mean, and I'm biased, like Italk about biosecurity all the
time so I obviously think thatbiosecurity is I mean, and I'm
biased, like I talk aboutbiosecurity all the time so I
obviously think it's important,but it really is a cornerstone
to a healthy herd and evenhealthy humans.
And so the more that we canunderstand, the more you
(33:52):
understand your operation, themore you can understand what are
practical and implementableways that you can improve
biosecurity.
Again, you don't have to createa castle all the way around your
operation, but maybe you can dolittle things to decrease that
risk and making sure that you'reusing all your resources.
(34:15):
I know University of Hawaii hasa great extension network
Working with them, working withyour veterinarian, working with
your industry partners so NCBA,beef Quality Assurance or any of
our other barnyard folks we all, like all of us, have the goal
of a healthy animal, goodwelfare, good food supply.
(34:39):
So we're all working togetherto try to help people move in
that direction.
So I would tell producers tostart small and then just work
your way up.
And don't forget the trainingpiece to this.
I think, training everybody onthe operation to understand what
the biosecurity expectationsare on your operation and then
(35:03):
remember biosecurity changes.
So maybe having an annualtraining or annual events to
where you are learning somethingelse that you can be
implementing.
Bqa has that biosecurityresource page that again, we
will add to the show notes.
But we also have somecontinuing education online
modules that are focused onbiosecurity, and then we've also
(35:27):
improved both our BQAcertification modules and our
BQA transportation modules withimproved biosecurity tips.
So if you aren't already BQAcertified, I'd recommend
checking that out.
It gives you that foundation ofnot just biosecurity but all
those other aspects of caringfor your herd, but I think we
(35:51):
can.
Again, focusing on thatcontinuous improvement, we can
always be better and I mean, ifthere's any way that I can
continue to help both of you orany of your producers, that's
what our producer education teamdoes.
So we're we're open to ideas.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Yeah Well, we appreciate you taking the time
to to talk with us today andshare cause.
I think it's a.
Biosecurity is an important,important aspect.
Is Kenny becoming to be moreimportant, more important, you
know, in these days, with morethings coming in, unfortunately?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
I think, no matter what your livestock is,
biosecurities just more and more, yeah, yeah, the forefront,
yeah, higher importance.
So, yeah, all right.
Well, thank you so much forjoining us today, julia.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you, yes, and we hope ourlisteners.
Julia, we really appreciate it.
Thank you, yes, and we hope ourlisteners found this
informative and that it will beuseful to them.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
That's right and make sure to follow us on our social
media pages.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
The Livestock, Bala'au and Livestock Extension
Group, If you haven't already besure to visit the UHC TAR
Extension website and ourYouTube channel listed in the
show notes For additionalinformation about this topic.
See the show notes of thepodcast in the description box
of our YouTube page.
Thanks for listening to theLivestock Vala'au Before we go.
Show some love for yourfavorite podcast by leaving us a
review anywhere you listen tothis and then stay tuned for
(37:08):
next month's episode.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Yeah, thanks again to our sponsors the Livestock
Extension Group of theUniversity of Hawaii, manoa
College of Tropical Agricultureand Human Resilience, the Center
for Ag Profitability of theUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln
and the Western SustainableAgriculture Research and
Education Program.
Mahalo for listening, a hui hou.
A hui hou.
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