Assessment of Biosecurity Status in Health and Livestock Sectors: A Brief Study

Abstract

Biosecurity plays an irreplaceable role in preventing diseases and increasing productivity on farms. Evaluation of biosecurity measures implemented in Harar and Dyer Dawar dairy farms was conducted to assess the relationship between the implementation of biosecurity measures and demographic and socio-economic characteristics of owners and farm characteristics. The main objective of this study was to investigate the biosecurity status of dairy farms and the factors affecting biosecurity on dairy farms in Harar and Dire Dawa, eastern regions of Ethiopia. A chi-square analysis of the obtained results showed that there was a significant relationship between the applied biosecurity measures and the location of the farms. Of the 124 biosecurity practices considered for the biosecurity compliance assessment of study farms, dairy biosecurity scores ranged from 33 to 74. The percentage of biosecurity scores varied from 27.1% to 61%. From the 21 dairy farms included in the current study, nine (9) farms achieved a score percentage greater than or equal to 51% (ranging from 50.3% to 61%), thus their biosecurity compliance was assessed as "good". The remaining 12 farms achieved percentage scores lower than 51% (varying from 27.1% to 47.4%) and were therefore graded as "poor". In this study, biosecurity was classified into four (4) components, isolation (19.24± 3.91), sanitation (16.64± 6.82), traffic control (16.94± 2.4), and health management (3.24± 1.06) with their respective mean ± standard deviation of each. Out of ten dairy farms located in Harar city, only eleven (11%) were assessed as having a "good" biosecurity level. On the other hand, out of ten studied dairy farms in Diyar Dawa city, eighty-one (81%) were assessed for “good” biosecurity adoption level.