Biosecurity Important in NW Feed Manufacturing

Washington State is home to a host of Ag companies with divisions that produce animal feed some large like Wilber Ellis and Cenex while others niche operations like NW Horse Supplement. Regardless in this day and age biosecurity in the livestock feed business is paramount to ensure the safety of their products and as a cattle and horse, and as a cattle and horse owner and breeder I'm thankful this is a top concern. Gary Huddleston, Manager of Feed Manufacturing Safety & Environmental Affairs for the American Feed Industry Association, provides his perspective on how biosecurity in the livestock feed business is key to helping contain the spread of animal diseases and stresses the importance of having a plan in place

Huddleston: "We encourage facilities to come up with a biosecurity plan; it's a three-step process, step one:you got to learn and identify the pathogen agents that are the greasties concern to your facility. If you manufacture poultry, feed you're not going to be concerned about the avian flu virus. You need to conduct a hazard assessment How can that facility decrease the risk of disease transmission, look at your layout, look at your traffic patterns, your staffing all those things then develop your plan implement those procedures and put that stuff in place. " One of his points resonated with me. Know your employees and require them to report their livestock activities, not to say they can't own animals, but you need to know what they are engaged in, a lot of companies in poultry industry, for example, have a policy that employees can't own any kind of backyard flocks to stop the possibility of any disease they might have tainting feeds.