Prevent foot and mouth disease with good hygiene measures

The highly contagious foot and mouth disease has serious economic consequences worldwide. The prevention and control of the disease is achieved in large part by cleanliness and hygiene in the barn and on a farm. Professional cleaning equipment and routines enable livestock farmers to maintain high standards of cleanliness – and thereby reduce the likelihood of the disease breaking out.

Infection routes in foot and mouth disease

Infection of foot and mouth disease can be both direct and indirect. During the virus’ incubation period, infected animals are highly contagious.

• Direct infection is from animal to animal, for example in a barn, during transport or at livestock markets.
• Indirectly, the virus is passed on via transport vehicles, human carriers, rodents, milk and semen.

Cattle are infected mainly via the respiratory tract, pigs orally, i.e. when drinking, eating or burrowing in the soil. The virus is relatively environmentally stable and can also be transmitted over longer distances via the air.

Recognize foot and mouth disease symptoms

Different animal species react differently to foot and mouth disease infection.

In cattle, the benign form of the disease kills 2 to 5 percent of the animals; in the malignant form, the morbidity rate is up to 80 percent. The damage caused by FMD is horrific – inflammations, changes in the claws, muscle weakness, compromised general condition and greatly reduced capacity.

In pigs, the disease is less dramatic, but sudden deaths occur in suckling piglets. In sheep and goats, the signs of disease are more inconspicuous.

Areas of foot and mouth disease occurance

Foot and mouth disease is spread pretty much across the world. It is only New Zealand that has never reported a case. In some countries, however, the last occurrence was a long time ago.

Foot and mouth disease is most common in Africa, Asia and parts of South America. It is less common in Europe. Despite strict veterinary surveillance, however, it is repeatedly re-introduced and poses a constant threat to livestock due to its high infection rate.

The last major outbreak in 2001 in the UK also spread to mainland Europe and led to the death of 4 million animals. Another outbreak in 2007 was successful in preventing the spread of the disease to other regions.

Cleanliness and hygiene measures against the FMD virus

From the many different infection routes, it follows that effective prevention of foot and mouth disease requires a whole range of measures. Cleanliness and hygiene play a key role here.

Attaining a high level of biosecurity requires professional cleaning and disinfection of barns and all equipment and machinery which contact animals. As a general rule, thorough cleaning must happen before disinfection. This is because a disinfectant is only really effective on cleaned surfaces.

The most important equipment for thorough and efficient barn cleaning, in addition to a shovel and wheelbarrow, is a high-pressure cleaner. A hot water high-pressure cleaner is best. Alternatively, a coldwater high-pressure cleaner is also suitable. A high pressure cleaner should be equipped with a cup foam lance – not only for the disinfectant, but also to apply cleaning agent beforehand. Cold water alone is not sufficient to achieve the necessary level of cleanliness to combat FMD.

Furthermore, a surface cleaner as well as a walk-behind sweeper are among the essential cleaning devices. A wet and dry vacuum cleaner and, in larger facilities, a scrubber-dryer are also recommended for cleaning changing rooms.

Cleaning routines differ from species to species:

Rodents

• Control mice and rats inside and outside the barns.
• The first step in controlling pests and rodents is throroughly cleaning the barn and yard. It’s only in a freshly cleaned barn and a regularly swept yard that rodent droppings will be detected. In addition, mice and rats find less food in a swept yard and regularly cleaned barns. Cleaning the yard is most efficiently done with a ride-on sweeper.

Staff work clothes

• Don’t allow external staff into the barn.
• Do not permit visits to neighbouring farms whilst you’re wearing your own barn clothes.
• Provide disinfected stable boots and clean work clothes washed at at least 60 °C or disposable clothes.
• Changing rooms at the entrance to the barn must be kept clean and disinfected regularly. A surface cleaner, a wet and dry vacuum cleaner are suitable, but, in the case of larger rooms, a scrubber dryer is helpful for cleaning the floor.
• Set up disinfection tubs at the entrance to the barn and lay out disinfection mats at all access roads to the farm. Change the disinfectant regularly according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Machines

• Clean shared machines with the hot water high-pressure cleaner or with a cold water high-pressure cleaner with detergent before handover and disinfect afterwards.

Other measures around the farm:

• Do not feed food waste.
• Confine poultry, do not let cats and dogs in the yard.
• Do not deliver milk from the farm.
• Meticulously clean and disinfect milking parlours.
• Do not allow carcass disposal vehicles to enter the premises.
  Ideally, no non-farm vehicles will come to the farm at all and new animals or feed are delivered from outside.
• Establish a quarantine barn for new animals, which is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before and after each occupancy.
  The animals in the quarantine stall should be last in a daily routine. This prevents pathogens from being carried from the quarantine barn to the other barns.