Disease management on farms.

Raising livestock comes with it challenges that must be managed to prevent death of animals and eventual closure of farms. Diseases do spring up at a point in the course of production due to inadequate preventive protocols or not conforming to bio security measures. A healthy animal is a happy animal and also a profitable one. The raising of healthy animals is the goal of every farmer There are measures and protocols that farmers can adopt to make sure that animals are healthy and hygiene is optimal to production. 1) limit exposure to stress; stressors could be heat,cold,inadequate feeding and management practices such as vaccination,castration,debeaking and teeth clipping.Stress is a killer and stress animals are very susceptible to infection,thus preventive measures must be put in place. 2) bio security measure must be tailored according to farm requirement and followed strictly. 3) Hygiene is pivotal to disease management in the farm,cleaning,washing and disinfection of farm tools,implements are important.Waste disposal is an integral part of hygiene,the way waste is handled and managed has an overall effect on disease management on farm. Removal of waste promptly from farm to dump site or incinerator or biogas chamber all addresses level of hygiene on the farm. 4) Animals that are sick on farms must be isolated to prevent animal-animal contact or contamination of feeder,drinker or bedding with secretions such as nasal,oral or fecal .Some animals often shed infective organism in various secretions making them sources of infection for other animals. Animal-animal contact if limited will reduce spread of infection on the farm.