This practical biosecurity initiative was developed to help our member practices and their clients reduce the risk of disease entering and spreading on their farms. Through two comprehensive management booklets, one for cattle and one for sheep, the campaign empowers farmers to assess their current practices, identify risks, and implement effective disease prevention strategies in collaboration with their vet.
Why Biosecurity Matters
Diseases can have serious financial, welfare, and human health implications. Make Your Farm Your Fortress encourages farmers to take proactive steps to protect:
Farm profitability by avoiding costly outbreaks.
Animal health through tailored disease control.
Human health by reducing zoonotic risks.
What’s Included in the Booklets
Each booklet provides:
A checklist to establish your farm’s current health status.
Guidance on purchasing animals safely, including sourcing from accredited herds/flocks.
Quarantine protocols and treatment plans.
Advice on managing boundaries, visitors, shared equipment, and deadstock.
Tips for market visits, manure handling, feed sourcing, and wildlife control.
Recommendations for effective use of disinfectants.
Cattle Disease Checklist
To support informed purchasing decisions, the campaign includes a Cattle Disease Checklist, a practical tool for farmers to record and assess disease risks when buying cattle. It covers:
Accreditation and vaccination status for diseases like Johne’s, BVD, Leptospirosis, IBR, and TB.
Screening history and test results.
Parasite treatments and mastitis records.
Zoonotic risks such as Salmonella, Brucellosis, and Neospora.
Additional considerations for bulls and imported animals.
This checklist helps farmers gather essential information from vendors and work with their vet to evaluate the health status of incoming stock.
Interactive and Vet-Supported
Use the booklets and checklist with your farm to tick through risk levels, record current practices, and identify areas for improvement. The booklets and checklist serve as working tools to build a farm-specific biosecurity policy that is practical and regularly reviewed.
Related Campaigns
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Fluke Sentinel
The Fluke Sentinel project took place to track the spread of Liver Fluke across the country, detecting liver fluke early through blood sampling and looking further into resistance to flukicides.
Learn more
