Globally, livestock and poultry industries are facing the emergence, re-emergence and re-circulation of highly contagious infectious diseases. Entry of disease into herds or flocks may be due to lack of biosecurity protocols, use of ineffective protocols or lack of compliance with protocols. Imperfect compliance can negate or nullify the efforts of others and expose animals to disease threats with consequences to premises, production systems and countries locally or globally.
Effective measures to prevent infectious disease spread have been known for centuries. Yet we are still struggling today on multiple levels in animal production. In practice, stumbling blocks to developing and carrying out biosecurity plans are encountered: These can be found at the operational level where people work on the premises, at the tactical level where owners or managers make decisions about protocols and at the strategic level where the industry or other regulatory policies come into play. The path forward begins with understanding why management systems and staff are failing to implement effective biosecurity and how to influence those involved to do better. Our understanding of what influences human behavior in the context of animal health and biosecurity has been bolstered in recent decades by transdisciplinary efforts among veterinary scientists and economists, communication specialists, anthropologists, education specialists and psychologists. This understanding can be used to engineer solutions physically, technologically, psychologically and socially. The goal of this publication is to regroup current knowledge on what works and does not work, why that is and how we can go forward in order to have immediate and lasting practical solutions to the problem of infectious disease spread in animal production.
This Research Topic welcomes the submission of papers aimed at highlighting effective practices that support adoption and implementation of—and compliance with—biosecurity protocols adequate to mitigate the current level of risk, whether that calls for everyday or enhanced levels of biosecurity in animal production. Given the human dimensions of animal health protection, we are especially interested in featuring cross-disciplinary efforts linking veterinary and social science(s) to effect behavior change. We will consider for publication: original research, synthesis and perspective, hypothesis and theory, conceptual analysis, and opinion papers that are forward-looking and innovative or that assess the broader need for multidisciplinary research and evaluation of methods, technologies, or other practical means of promoting biosecurity planning and compliance with plans. Examples of topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• bad habits to break: what has been done and shown not to work…and yet still in use
• creating a culture of biosecurity
• development and evaluation of training methods
• reaching all key players, including workers not fluent in the local language or with low literacy
• engineering and technological advances for building a biosecure future
• assessment of the practical effectiveness of mitigation tactics at the production level
• effective ways of motivating appropriate biosecurity decision-making and behaviors
• parallels between/lessons learned regarding compliance with COVID public health measures and animal biosecurity
Globally, livestock and poultry industries are facing the emergence, re-emergence and re-circulation of highly contagious infectious diseases. Entry of disease into herds or flocks may be due to lack of biosecurity protocols, use of ineffective protocols or lack of compliance with protocols. Imperfect compliance can negate or nullify the efforts of others and expose animals to disease threats with consequences to premises, production systems and countries locally or globally.
Effective measures to prevent infectious disease spread have been known for centuries. Yet we are still struggling today on multiple levels in animal production. In practice, stumbling blocks to developing and carrying out biosecurity plans are encountered: These can be found at the operational level where people work on the premises, at the tactical level where owners or managers make decisions about protocols and at the strategic level where the industry or other regulatory policies come into play. The path forward begins with understanding why management systems and staff are failing to implement effective biosecurity and how to influence those involved to do better. Our understanding of what influences human behavior in the context of animal health and biosecurity has been bolstered in recent decades by transdisciplinary efforts among veterinary scientists and economists, communication specialists, anthropologists, education specialists and psychologists. This understanding can be used to engineer solutions physically, technologically, psychologically and socially. The goal of this publication is to regroup current knowledge on what works and does not work, why that is and how we can go forward in order to have immediate and lasting practical solutions to the problem of infectious disease spread in animal production.
This Research Topic welcomes the submission of papers aimed at highlighting effective practices that support adoption and implementation of—and compliance with—biosecurity protocols adequate to mitigate the current level of risk, whether that calls for everyday or enhanced levels of biosecurity in animal production. Given the human dimensions of animal health protection, we are especially interested in featuring cross-disciplinary efforts linking veterinary and social science(s) to effect behavior change. We will consider for publication: original research, synthesis and perspective, hypothesis and theory, conceptual analysis, and opinion papers that are forward-looking and innovative or that assess the broader need for multidisciplinary research and evaluation of methods, technologies, or other practical means of promoting biosecurity planning and compliance with plans. Examples of topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• bad habits to break: what has been done and shown not to work…and yet still in use
• creating a culture of biosecurity
• development and evaluation of training methods
• reaching all key players, including workers not fluent in the local language or with low literacy
• engineering and technological advances for building a biosecure future
• assessment of the practical effectiveness of mitigation tactics at the production level
• effective ways of motivating appropriate biosecurity decision-making and behaviors
• parallels between/lessons learned regarding compliance with COVID public health measures and animal biosecurity
