Language selection

Search

National Farm-Level Biosecurity Standard for the Goat Industry
3 Glossary of Terms

This page is part of the Guidance Document Repository (GDR).

Looking for related documents?
Search for related documents in the Guidance Document Repository

The first occurrence of each term present in the glossary has been identified in the document with bold text.

Accredited:
Approved or recognized as meeting a prescribed standard.
Acute:
Rapid onset or short duration.
Anthelmintic:
An agent, usually a drug, which is destructive to worms (internal parasites).
Antibodies:
A product of the immune system that helps to recognize and facilitate the destruction of specific infectious agents such as bacteria or viruses within the body.
Antimicrobial:
An agent that kills or inhibits the growth of micro-organisms.
Asymptomatic:
Not exhibiting clinical signs of a disease or condition.
Barn:
A farm building used for storing farm products and sheltering livestock.
Biologics:
Medical preparations made from living organisms or their products; examples include vaccines, toxoids, serum, and antigens.
Biosecurity:
A health plan or measures that are designed to protect a population from transmissible infectious agents.
Biosecurity protocols:
Those measures, specific to a goat operation, that are used to prevent the introduction and the spread of disease within an animal population and from that goat operation.
Carrier:
An individual that is infected with an infectious agent, but is not showing any clinical signs of disease at that time; transmission of the infectious agent from a carrier may be possible.
Cleaning:
Washing with detergent to remove all organic matter, and includes both a dry (scraping and brushing) and wet clean.
Commingling:
Mixing of animals from different farms or production facilities, resulting in direct or close indirect contact among them.
Community pasture:
A public grazing area shared by more than one producer and not owned by a single producer.
Controlled access zone:
A designated area in which biosecurity protocols are in place and monitored and within which livestock are managed (e.g. a location or primary location) and that is accessible to people, equipment, vehicles, and livestock only through a securable (e.g. lockable) controlled access point.
Cross-contamination:
The act of mixing a material, especially a material that is potentially infectious, with another material, thereby introducing the risk that a contaminant could be transferred to an animal. For example, infectious agents shed by sick or carrier animals can be transferred from manure to feed by the use of a common bucket or shovel.
Direct contact:
Any form of close contact in which goats can physically touch one another, including all forms of nose-to-nose contact.
Disease(s) of concern:
Those diseases that pose a high risk to the health and productivity of a herd; can be farm-specific or applicable to an entire region or country.
Disinfection:
Using a disinfection agent (i.e. a chemical that can kill micro-organisms) on areas being cleaned.
Dry pack:
A bedding approach that is formed by adding more bedding on top of the existing bedding to reduce the frequency of manure removal. A bedded pack can stay dry and warm, but it is important to clean out periodically.
Emerging pathogen:
A bacterium, virus, or other micro-organism that has either been newly discovered or newly introduced to a geographic area or population.
Epidemiology:
The study of the determinants and distribution of health-related events (including disease) in a population; can be applied to disease control strategies.
Family members:
Any family members who work on the farm, whether they live there or not.
Farm worker:
A person who works on the goat operation; may include family members.
Fomites:
Any inanimate object that can carry and/or transmit an infectious agent.
Goat operations:
All of the activities involved in raising goats and working with goat products, including meat, dairy, and fibre.
Goat products:
Any live animals, fresh meat, meat products, milk or milk products, and fibre or fibre products.
Guardian animals:
Dogs (e.g. guardian dogs, herding dogs), llamas, donkeys, horses, etc., that have contact with, and are used to manage, the goats for purposes such as moving the goats or guarding the goats from predators.
Health status:
Current state of health of the animal or herd, including both its condition and any infectious agents present in the animal or herd.
Heat treatment:
Procedure used to prepare colostrum for newborn consumption; involves heating the product for 1 hour at 56°C.
Herd of origin:
Herd(s) within which the animal was born.
Identified risk areas:
Any area on the premises that has an increased likelihood of disease introduction and/or transmission; this may be due to the nature of the activity that occurs in the area and/or the group of animals that are housed within.
Immunity:
Resistance to infection and/or disease.
Incubation:
The period of time between exposure to an infectious agent and the onset of clinical signs of disease.
Indirect contact:
Any form of contact between goats that involves shared contact with inanimate objects (e.g. surfaces, equipment, feed, water, bedding); does not involve any physical contact.
Infectious agent:
A microbial pathogen that can potentially cause disease (i.e. bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and prions); agents may be shed from an infected animal that appears healthy and is either incubating disease, recovering from disease, or is a carrier without symptoms. Routes of shedding include saliva, milk, respiratory secretions, feces, urine, epidermal shedding, and uterine or vaginal discharges. After shedding, infectious agents can persist in the environment, sometimes for extended periods of time, and be transmitted indirectly.
Infectious disease:
Disease caused by an infectious agent.
Isolation:
Restricting an animal to a location that is physically separate from other livestock. The purpose of isolating an animal is usually to prevent it from transmitting a disease to another animal or acquiring disease from another animal, either because it is known to be diseased or because its disease status is unknown. The location is known as an isolation facility.
Livestock operation:
The buildings, dry lots, paddocks, corrals, and pastures used at any time of year to manage any livestock, including goats. The operation may have one or more locations.
Loading area:
An area that is designated for the loading and unloading of animals; not just the ramp, but also any holding area and handling facilities used for this purpose.
Location:
A single location is defined as a property used to manage goat (or livestock) that is self-contained and not divided by land or public roadway (e.g. concession road, highway – but not private laneway or walking path).
Morbidity:
A measure of the number of individuals who are affected by a disease in a population.
Mortality:
A measure of the number of deaths in a population.
Necropsy:
A post-mortem examination to determine the cause of death; may involve only gross examination, or additional sampling and laboratory testing for infectious agents and/or toxins.
Newborn:
Kid less than 1 day old.
Other livestock:
Animals, other than goats, that are used for food or fibre production, work, guardian activity, and recreation; specifically, sheep, cattle (dairy, beef, veal), horses, bison, water buffalo, farmed deer and/or elk, alpacas, llamas, swine, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese.
Pastures:
Fenced areas that are used for livestock grazing at any time of year; may include multi-use fields (e.g. graze after haying or aftermath feeding).
Pests and wildlife:
All non-livestock and non-domestic animals, and insects that may pose a health risk (disease and/or predatory) to the goat herd.
Practice:
General procedure that is followed by a producer, and not necessarily documented or detailed to the extent of a protocol.
Premises:
A defined area of land with all accompanying structures.
Prophylactic:
A preventive action or measure.
Protocol:
Description of a practice or method, usually written in a standard format that applies to a specific activity and has an intended result or outcome.
Reportable disease:
Those diseases that are outlined in the Health of Animals Act and Reportable Diseases Regulations and are usually of significant importance to human or animal health, or to the Canadian economy. Animal owners, veterinarians, and laboratories are required to immediately report the presence of an animal that is contaminated or suspected of being contaminated with one of these diseases to a CFIA district veterinarian. Control or eradication measures will be applied immediately. Some provinces also have a list of reportable diseases and required response actions.
Restricted access zone:
An area inside the controlled access zone where goats are housed and where access by people or equipment is further restricted.
Service provider:
A person, company, or organization that provides goods or services to farms on a professional basis, including feed and feed additives suppliers, veterinarians, hoof trimmers, shearing and combing technicians, live animal transporters, deadstock pick-up services, manure management, and many others. The nature of service providers' activities on a farm, especially their closeness to or interaction with the herd, determines the relative risk of disease transmission that they represent.
Shedding:
Transmission of an infectious agent from an individual to another individual or to the environment; can occur in the absence of clinical signs.
Source herd:
The herd from which goats, sperm, and/or embryos are purchased; may also be the herd of origin.
Supply chain(s):
All stages of production, processing, distribution, and sales for a product.
Susceptible:
Lacking sufficient resistance or immunity and therefore at higher risk of infection and disease.
Traceability:
The ability to follow a product through all stages of the supply chain.
Verified:
Proven to be truthful or accurate.
Veterinary client patient relationship (VCPR):
An established rapport that exists between a veterinarian and each client and patient, and is required before a veterinarian can prescribe or sell medications; in some provinces a valid VCPR requires on-farm visits at least annually.
Visitor:
A non-service provider visiting the herd.
Zoonoses:
Infectious diseases that can be transmitted (in some instances, by a vector) from animals, both wild and domestic, to humans or from humans to animals.
Date modified: