Disinfection management in beef cattle farming is a key link that cannot be ignored
At present, the feeding costs of beef cattle farms are constantly rising, and farming profits are constantly declining; these problems continue to trouble farmers. Therefore, reducing farming costs is the key to beef cattle farm management, and the key practices are to raise awareness of disinfection management and strengthen disinfection management.
????I. The important significance of disinfection management
Under the current farming conditions in our country, the key to preventing and controlling any disease on beef cattle farms is to improve biosecurity and strengthen disinfection management. However, the farming situation in our country is that the vast majority of farming volume comes from small and medium-sized beef cattle farms, and there are also rural surplus laborers engaged in farming. In the farming process, disinfection management is often not taken seriously, and the following problems frequently occur:
1. Farms often ignore the importance of isolation between the farm and the outside world
Due to reasons such as site selection and poor management, the farm and the external environment have in fact become a place for unimpeded exchange of various items (especially pollutants) and pathogen-carrying people, causing widespread disease transmission.
2. The importance of isolating animals from feces and urine is often ignored
The ground-based flat-raising method keeps animals in constant contact with the feces and urine they excrete. Once a small number of animals become infected, the nutrient-rich feces and urine on the ground serve as an excellent culture medium for bacteria, allowing them to multiply rapidly, which in turn continuously worsens the occurrence of disease.
Therefore, regularly cleaning up feces and urine so that beef cattle live in an environment isolated from feces and urine is the guarantee for effectively controlling disease.
3. Weak awareness of disinfection and neglect of the importance of disinfection
Disinfection is a key technical means of keeping disease out of farms or animals' bodies. Its role cannot be replaced by vaccine immunization or antibiotic prevention and control.
This is because pathogens exist in the environment inside and outside animal housing, and disease can be induced once they reach a certain concentration; excessively high stocking density also accelerates the speed at which pathogens gather, increasing the chance of disease infection; diseases are mostly mixed infections (combined infections), and one antibiotic cannot treat multiple diseases; many diseases still have no good drugs or vaccines; after vaccination, the period before antibodies are produced is a high-risk period for disease, and when the early antibody potency is lower than the degree of external contamination, reducing the number of external pathogens can reduce the chance of infection. Therefore, the significance of disinfection is very great.
Disinfection can broadly kill bacteria and viruses and eliminate pathogenic microorganisms present outside the body and in its environment. Only through disinfection can the cost of drug use be reduced, and disinfection has no problem of residues in the body. Therefore, disinfection is the most cost-effective form of health protection.
4. Farms often have mistaken understandings about disinfection: they believe that vaccination means safety and do not disinfect according to regulations; since pathogenic microorganisms are invisible and intangible, they lack confidence in disinfection. They are skeptical about the effect of disinfection; drugs can provide health care and treatment, so they feel that disinfecting the ground environment is a painful and worthless expense; they attach importance to disinfection before entering the barn but neglect disinfection after entering the barn; disinfection is not thorough, not standardized, and not sustained; they neglect disinfection of animals, air, drinking water, and the ground; disinfection pools do not exist at all or exist in name only; improper selection and use of disinfectants leads to poor disinfection results; they place too much expectation on vaccines, believing that once vaccinated everything will be fine, while the objective reality is that the protective power of vaccines is relative and limited, vaccines cannot replace environmental disinfection, and only with good management and a healthy constitution in beef cattle can vaccines exert their best effect.
????II. Common methods of disinfection:
1. Physical disinfection methods
Sunlight, ultraviolet light, drying.
Sunlight is a natural disinfectant. The ultraviolet rays in its spectrum have strong bactericidal ability, and the drying caused by sunlight exposure also has a bactericidal effect. Exposure to sunlight for several minutes to several hours can kill ordinary viruses and pathogenic bacteria, so this natural favorable condition should be fully utilized.
Artificial ultraviolet disinfection is relatively common in poultry farms. Generally, more than 30 minutes is required, and it only has a good disinfection effect on objects with smooth surfaces.
High temperature: using flame for burning and baking is a simple and effective disinfection method. Flames can be used to disinfect metal instruments. Various metal items, glassware, clothing, and so on can also be boiled for disinfection, and a little alkali can be added, such as 1%-2% soda, to promote the dissolution of proteins and fats and prevent metal from rusting. Increasing the temperature can enhance the disinfection effect.
Feces, bedding straw, contaminated garbage, items of little value, and the carcasses of dead chickens can all be incinerated with flames.
2. Chemical disinfection methods.
Common disinfectants: Lysol (cresol soap solution), formalin (formaldehyde solution), quicklime (calcium oxide), and caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) all have strong bactericidal effects and are used to disinfect beef cattle barns, tools, and transport vehicles. Bleaching powder (chlorinated lime) decomposes in water to produce hypochlorous acid, nascent oxygen, and chlorine, and has a strong bactericidal effect. Benzalkonium bromide (benzyl bromide ammonium) aqueous solution is alkaline foam. It has good killing efficacy against pyogenic bacteria, intestinal bacteria, and some viruses, but its killing effect on fungi is not good. A 0.05%-0.1% aqueous solution is used for washing hands, a 0.1% aqueous solution is used for spray disinfection of eggshells, incubators, and tools, and a 0.15%-0.2% solution is used for spray disinfection inside chicken houses. Peracetic acid is a strong oxidant and has a strong killing effect on bacteria, spores, and fungi. A commonly used 0.5% solution is sprayed on chicken house floors, feed troughs, and so on. For indoor air disinfection, use 10-15 milliliters of a 20% solution per cubic meter, dilute it to 3%-5%, heat and fumigate, keep indoor humidity at 60%-80%, and close doors and windows for 1-2 hours. Potassium permanganate generates nascent oxygen when it meets water, oxidizes bacteria, and disrupts bacterial metabolism. It is used to disinfect skin, mucous membranes, and wounds. This product's solution needs to be prepared fresh before use.
At present, disinfectant drugs commonly used in beef cattle farming also include: iodine preparations, quaternary ammonium salts, and so on.
????III. Disinfection measures during epidemic periods
Although beef cattle farms are strictly managed, in a complex and intricate broader environment they will inevitably suffer impacts from external epidemics. Therefore, during this period, disinfection work at every link must be strengthened:
1. Disinfection for entry and exit of people and vehicles: a disinfection pool is set up at the entrance of the beef cattle farm or the entrance and exit of the production area, and 2% caustic soda water is kept in the pool at all times. Vehicles entering and exiting must pass through the disinfection pool, and the vehicle body is sprayed and disinfected with a 2%-3% Lysol aqueous solution.
People entering the farm area must pass through the disinfection pool to disinfect their boots and shoes; people entering the production area must first change clothes and take a shower in the disinfection room, wear disinfected work clothes, hats, and boots, and then enter the production area after passing through the disinfection pool. Workers must wash their hands before contacting the herd, feed, and so on.