Biosecurity Fatigue
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Everyone in agriculture has to constantly remain aware of biosecurity threats. And it’s often the threats that aren’t in the headlines that can take producers by surprise. Economist Dr. Jada Thompson says biosecurity fatigue can set in during times when it’s important to remain vigilant.
Thompson… “ And so the same thing on a farm is, I am gonna do all these practices, but I'm, I'm not gonna do them as best as I can and pretend that I have an immediate threat. And so then the idea would be. If you knew that birds were coming through or potentially spreading a disease now you were gonna be on and trying to protect your birds as much as you can versus, you know, potentially maybe having some fatigue coming in and people getting diseases where maybe they could have prevented them. And again, I'm not saying that people are out here just willy-nilly, you know, letting wild birds come into their chicken houses. I think that vigilance requires investment in infrastructure for their houses, and there's a lot of pieces moving into that, which are costly.”
Dr. Thompson’s research primarily focuses on animal health and livestock economics with emphasis on the poultry industry.
