An Assessment of Potential Biosecurity Risks Associated With the Farm
From the visit, there are certain things that are observed and are a source of great risks to the farmer. To begin with, there are sections of the farm fence that have fallen over but the farmer has not made any attempts to mend them. These could be a risk to the neighbors, if the animals in the farm got a way of moving out of their sheds. They could attack them and some of the crops in their farms leading to a great loss to them. This could be solved by installation of an electric fence, to avoid damage from the hurricanes. A muddy puddle in the farm barn, has mosquitoes and flies. The leaking pipe accommodates these insects and they could be a source of diseases such as malaria and other infections that are brought about by poor hygiene. The farmer could minimize this risk by either mending the leaking pipe to ensure that there will no stagnant water in the firm.
The floor where the cows are has lots of manure. This is risky because the cows could easily fall because the floor is slippery leading to their death. This would be a loss to the farmer and thus the recommendation is that the farmer should wash the floor regularly, on a daily basis. The farmer has also neglected his role of ensuring good storage of the milk he collects form the cows. Though he is aware that the refrigerator should be cooled to a temperature of 40 0 C, he does not check the temperature regularly. This is a risk as it could lead to his milk going bad due to high temperatures, if the inside of the refrigerator is hot. I would recommend the farmer to regularly check the temperature to ensure that they do not fall or rise.
The fence of the shed used to house chickens by the farmer is as low as four feet only. This is risky because air ventilation is not well taken care of and could lead to some of them suffocating. I would advise the farmer to put the fence as high as six feet to ensure that the chickens have enough air, he does not isolate those chickens that are sick with the rest, which is risky as the sick chickens could pass the diseases to the rest. The area where he uses to house the isolated chickens is so close to the shed where the rest of the chickens are, thus it is as if they are just kept together. This would even make all to die, thus the farmer needs to build extra sheds, to isolate those chickens that are sick from the rest. He only administer the basic vaccines to the animals and states that it is expensive so he assumes the others. This is risky because the animals may later be affected by the diseases that are used prevented by the vaccines he ignores. Thus, he should have a specific veterinarian, who will administer all the vaccines to all the animals and can even go ahead and take insurance covers for them.
The store has some feces from rats, meaning that there are rodents in the store. This is risky as the feces may get into the feeds, and when consumed by the animals, they may die. Therefore, I recommend the farmer to keep off the rodents by poisoning them. Some patches are seen in the plants he grows and thinks that the cause might be the nematodes. This is risky as he may take stops to eliminate the proposed insects only to find that they are not the cause thus worsening the condition. Immediate help from a profession should be sought. He uses the tractor to cultivate in all the fields without washing it. This would lead to transfer of some harmful soil components from one field to the other leading to less yields, the farmer thus, is required to wash the tractor before using it an a different field. The water used for irrigation is from a nearby ditch, where some people urinate. This is risky because it may poison the soil, leading to low yields. The farmer could build a big tank to collect water from the rains or even from a clean source of water such as a dam for irrigation.