Develop plan now to prepare for disease outbreak

MANHATTAN, Kan. — If a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak occurs in the United States, the day-to-day operations and how beef producers do business will be different.

“During that time, things will change and the entire industry is going to have a new normal,” said Kelly Oliver-Halbleib, animal health planner at the Kansas Department of Agriculture. “You will not be shipping and receiving at the same volume.”

One of the best things about livestock producers is their problem-solving skills.

“Those problem-solving skills shine when we start discussing how we are going to get items on and off the operation safely,” said Oliver-Halbleib during a webinar hosted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

A Secure Beef Supply Plan has two main components — a written portion and a map.

“If you have a plan at the start of an outbreak, this is one less thing you have to think about,” Oliver-Halbleib said. “That is why it is much easier to have a plan ready to go prior to an outbreak instead of trying to scramble to get one together during an outbreak.”

This plan will only work, the animal health planner said, if the entire team at a beef operation follows it.

“The trick to putting your map together is to be creative because every operation is laid out differently,” she said. “Some are much easier and straightforward than others.”

There is no such thing as a perfect plan, that has zero percent risk, Oliver-Halbleib said.

“But every biosecurity measure you put in place certainly helps reduce your level of risk,” she said.

Developing a Secure Beef Supply Plan for cow-calf producers can be challenging because cattlemen use a lot of different pastures at different times of the year.

“It is impossible to know where the cattle will be when an outbreak occurs,” Oliver-Halbleib said.

Training employees on how to get from the dirty side to the clean side is an important part of the process.

“They need to be properly trained on how nothing crosses the line of separation without being properly cleaned and disinfected,” Oliver-Halbleib said.

Once a plan has been developed, it is a good idea to test it.

“What looks good on paper may not actually work,” Oliver-Halbleib said. “I would rather know now that something needs to be adjusted than during an outbreak.”

In addition, cattlemen should keep the plan up to date.

“Turnover happens, construction happens, so when you add new pens, build a new feed mill or work with a new veterinarian, make sure those changes have been made to your plan,” Oliver-Halbleib said. “So, it stays as relevant as possible.”

Feedyards

The process to develop a Secure Beef Supply Plan for Five Rivers Cattle Feeding started in 2019.

“Most of our feedyards are from 70,000 to 100,000 head capacity, so if we close the gates, we have a lot of animals to take care of every day,” said Tanner Pickett, general manager for the company. “Getting traffic in and out is crucial to us.”

The company hired a consultant to develop a plan.

“Our goal was to make a standardized format that we could use across all 13 facilities,” Pickett said.

Once the plan was on paper, he said, groups walked through the feedlots to see if there was enough space to bring the plan to life.

“Setting up the line of separation is where it becomes pretty challenging,” he said. “In the event of a crisis, you’re probably going to use anything you can find to create lines of separation like hay bales, vehicles or barriers.”

In 2023, the feedlot did a live mock exercise for an entire day.

“You have to bring the plan to life because it is pretty easy to mockup on paper and draw it on Goggle Earth,” Pickett said.

“But when you start creating lines and turning radius for big trucks, you really understand how small your facility is,” he said. “It was a real eye-opening experience for us.”

Developing a plan is time-consuming and challenging, Pickett said.

“You need to start now because it takes time and it takes revisions,” he said.

Toolkit

At Iowa State University, work is in progress to develop a toolkit for biosecurity managers.

“Departments of agriculture across the country reported that training for biosecurity managers and other employees was a gap for a significant number of farms,” said Molly Lee, associate director of the Center for Food Security and Public Health at the university.

The toolkit will include easy reference guides for sourcing information about biosecurity outlined in Secure Food Supply Plans. In will be available both online and in PDF form.

“It will include engaging training videos that highlight key roles and responsibilities of the biosecurity manager,” Lee said.

Active learning worksheets will assess the knowledge gained by the participants.

“We are developing a training checklist and plenty of resources to help biosecurity managers,” the veterinarian said. “Our target date for completing the toolkit is late summer or early fall.”