Keeping Animals Healthy

Do you remember the old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?" The livestock industry practices this regularly to keep animals healthy. Livestock producers prefer to prevent sickness rather than treat sickness. Treating sick animals is not only expensive but also very time-consuming. Here are some common techniques producers use to keep their animals healthy and avoid having to treat them.

Good Nutrition

Just as in human nutrition, where people eat a healthy diet and may also take a daily vitamin and mineral supplement, livestock producers balance rations to ensure their animals receive a healthy diet. To do this, producers test feeds and then match the nutrient amounts in the feeds to the animals' nutrient requirements. The National Research Council publishes nutrient requirement books for a wide variety of species. The nutrient requirement tables in these books account for different animal ages and production status. Requirements differ across production statuses, including breeding, pregnancy, milk production, animal growth, and performance. Horse owners who don't ride their horses very often feed those horses a lot differently than horses that may be working every day. In addition to the feeds, producers provide mineral mixtures formulated with salt to adjust for nutrient deficiencies from the feeds. Why is nutrition so important? Growth rates, reproductive efficiency, and, especially, immune system function all rely on good nutrition for optimal performance. Good mineral nutrition also enhances an animal's response to vaccinations, a primary method for protecting animals from disease.

Facilities

I can't stress the importance of a clean and dry environment with good ventilation enough. Animals are well adapted to handle cold temperatures when they are well fed and have a good hair coat or wool length. Good ventilation can result in good air quality. This is why livestock producers keep barns cleaned out and well-bedded during the winter months. It is also why animals give birth to their young on pastures. Cleanliness is the key.

Vaccinations

Livestock producers carefully choose vaccination products to best meet the needs of their individual operation. They choose vaccines based on prior experience with disease on their farm and the likelihood of exposure to those diseases. Producers read product labels and handle vaccinations properly. Simple procedures producers follow include proper storage temperature, vaccinating clean and dry animals, injecting with clean needles, and injecting using the correct method. Producers also check expiration dates and discard expired products. Only healthy animals get vaccinated so that the immune system can best utilize the vaccine. And, producers vaccinate at least two weeks prior to a stressful event, such as weaning, transporting, or castrating.

Biosecurity

One means that animal diseases arrive on a farm is through contact with other animals that may or may not appear sick. Producers who exhibit their animals at various shows will house these animals separately from the main herd or flock once those animals return home from the show. This quarantine period should last three to four weeks before those animals can be mixed with the rest of the herd or flock on the farm. However, animal diseases can also arrive on a farm through indirect contact. This occurs when producers visit other farms, transport animals to a sale barn, or even visit a county fair. Once the producer returns to the home farm, they change into clean clothing and shoes to avoid exposing their own animals to bacteria and viruses that could be carried home on their clothing or footwear.

Prevention programs are not foolproof: livestock operations can still develop sick animals from time to time. However, the goal is to minimize the risk of animals getting sick, thereby reducing the need for treatment. Farmers observe animals daily so they can identify problems quickly. Sick animals are moved to a location away from the main herd or flock and treated as necessary. Livestock producers work tirelessly to raise high-quality and healthy animals.