New guide spells out biosecurity principles

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization has released Good Practices for Biosecurity in the Pig Sector—Issues and Options in Developing and Transition Countries as paper #169 in its series of bulletins on animal production and health. It was published in cooperation with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Bank.
The guide was written François Madec of the French food safety authority’s veterinary research laboratory; Daniel Hurnik, University of Prince Edward Island in Canada; and Vincent Porphyre and Eric Cardinale, veterinary researchers at the CIRAD, a French agricultural research center working on issues of concern to developing countries.
The report outlines three main elements of biosecurity. The first is segregation, defined as the creation and maintenance of barriers to limit the potential opportunities for infected animals and contaminated materials to enter an uninfected site. The second is cleaning of materials, such as vehicles and equipment, that have to enter or leave a site. The third is disinfection. The guide says that disinfection, when properly applied, will inactivate any pathogen that is present on materials that have already been thoroughly cleaned.