Hello and welcome back to our discussion of common diseases and injuries and how to prevent them. In the last lessons, you learned about management of parasites and insects, as well as how to pay attention to possible health and dental issues. In this lesson, we'll discuss how disease can spread despite your best efforts. By the end of the lesson, you'll be able to develop a biosecurity plan that will help you to minimize impacts of infectious disease on you, your staff, and your facility. Let's get started with the basics. It's probably fair to say that you understand the importance of washing your hands or covering your mouth to prevent getting sick or transmitting diseases. That is a first step in personal biosecurity. But what do you do if you are trying to protect your horse or a barn full of horses? The same principles apply, and we will remind you of the importance of providing the horse with a stress-free environment, a good diet, shelter, and vaccinations. We've talked previously about methods and products to disinfect stalls. And we recommend that you review lesson three from week two for tips on disinfecting. There are additional key points to consider. First, horses can spread disease even when they don't look sick. The organisms that cause disease can be transmitted by direct contact from horse to horse via body secretions, or indirect contact like on the bottom of a pitchfork in a dirty stall, or through insects that are flying from stall to stall, even by humans with a halter and a lead rope that's contaminated, or a passing dog or cat on their feet. The biosecurity measures you take to prevent the introduction or spread of disease will also depend somewhat on how much horses travel off the farm or how often you have new arrivals at the stable. Be sure to ask questions not only about incoming horses, but also about where the horse is going. If you go to a horse show, what biosecurity measures are they taking? If there is high traffic and turnover of horses at your facility, you may need to have a special isolated section to house new horses or to reintroduce horses into the herd that have been away. This is ideally a separate building, but it can be as simple as an area of the barn where there is a very low flow of people and horses passing by and where horses cannot have nose to nose contact and ideally are 30 feet away from their neighbor. These isolation areas are also invaluable in the event you do have an outbreak, so you can isolate the sick horses from the healthy ones. Equipment such as pitchforks, hoses, brushes, tires are often overlooked as a source of contamination. Bedding and manure should be kept separate. Water containers should not be shared, just like you would not drink out of a glass from a sick friend. If there is transportation of horses on or off site or an outbreak, this is a time to pay special attention to insect control and to biosecurity measures. If you do have a staff or have any help around the barn, be sure to designate a specific person or specific persons to handle the isolated or sick horses. These caretakers should have familiarity with the biosecurity measures and respect for the importance of following the protocols put in place. Staff should wear protective clothing and use washable rubber boots or disposable boot coverings when handling affected horses or quarantine horses. Disinfected foot baths can be very useful if they are kept clean and depending upon the chemicals used in them, either bleach or diluted excel. Do you remember we talked about bleach being inactivated by organic material like manure? So, it's important if you are using foot baths, that they be kept clean. Staff should keep records of the horses vital signs. You can refer back to lesson two of week one for a refresher on how to take vital signs. Ideally, vital signs should be taken twice a day. Once you have or suspect you may have an ill horse, a series of rules referred to as a protocol should be strictly followed. In medicine, a protocol is the plan for carrying out a treatment regimen. The rules that your protocols should follow include: new horses should be kept away from resident horses for two to three weeks. This is generally how long an infected horse might take to incubate a disease and show signs. All horses, whether new or residents, that show signs of contagious disease like fever, coughing, nasal discharge, or diarrhea should be isolated. Visitors, of course, should be kept away from quarantined or ill patients, as well as dogs and cats. Be careful about vehicles coming in and out of the premises. Tires are also an overlooked source of contamination. You may want to restrict vehicle access if possible. And of course, as prevention, your stable should have clear rules about knowing the vaccination history and health status of the incoming horses. PS, wash your hands, developing your biosecurity plan and protocols is a primary way you can help contain and minimize any outbreak that might happen. But as we've mentioned before, at times it's hard to tell if a horse is sick. In our next lesson, we'll discuss how to recognize pain and discomfort, an important topic for everyone who works with horses. See you soon.
