Similar to social distancing, which has been used to slow the spread of COVID-19, maintaining a physical distance between animals (or groups of animals) can prevent illnesses from spreading rapidly.
Biosecurity
Biosecurity measures are used to eliminate animal exposure to outside pathogens. Measures include quarantine periods for new animals, sanitation of any new equipment or vehicles coming onto the property, and changing or disinfecting clothes or shoes before entering a biosecure area.
Sick Animal Segregation
Animals exhibiting signs of illness are “pulled” from their home pens and moved to an isolated pen, sometimes called a “hospital pen” for treatment and/or monitoring. The hospital pen is located some distance away from the other healthy animals to prevent infections from spreading.
Prevention of Commingling
Just like kids at daycare, when you have a lot of animals coming together from different places, they are bound to get sick.
Wildlife Considerations
Wildlife may play a role in the dissemination of antimicrobial resistant zoonotic diseases. Wild birds and deer, for instance, can interact with multiple cattle herds that might otherwise be isolated from each other.
