The National Sheep Producer Biosecurity Planning Guide
4 Glossary
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The terms in the following table may be used in the Guide and in the Standard.
Terms in bold in the text are defined in the glossary:
- Term
- Definition as used in The Standard and The Guide
- Adjacent to
- This includes situations where sheep are in nose to nose contact with other animals including other sheep. This includes situations where the animals cannot touch each other but share airspace. e.g. sheep are not commingled with livestock (including sheep) but may have direct or indirect contact across a fence line or pen wall. It would not include those farms separated by a road or some other physical space barrier.
- All-in-all-out
- A production system in which the whole flock (all-in-all-out) or groups of lambs/sheep of similar disease risk (modified all-in-all-out) are housed and moved as a single unit(s) and are removed from the farm as a unit.
- Barn
- A farm building used for storing farm products and sheltering livestock
- Biosecurity
- A health plan or measures designed to protect a population from infectious agents.
- Biosecurity Protocols
- Those measures specific to a sheep operation used to prevent the introduction and the spread of disease within an animal population and from that sheep operation.
- Canadian Sheep Identification Program (CSIP)
- The Canadian Sheep Identification Program (CSIP) is a mandatory, industry-led initiative to develop a traceback system that will lead to a full-scale traceability system and the capacity to address producer concerns about sheep health, provide valuable management feedback to producers, and meet consumer expectations for quality assurance and food safety.
- Cleaning
- Involves washing with detergent in order to remove all organic matter, and includes both a dry (scraping and brushing) and wet clean.
- Commingling
- The act of mixing sheep, either with other sheep from different farms or production facilities or with other animal species, resulting in direct or close indirect contact among them.
- Community pastures
- A community pasture is 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) and which is accessible to people / equipment / vehicles and livestock only through a securable (e.g. lockable) controlled access point.
- Cross-contamination
- The distribution of potentially-infectious material from one animal to another, or between facilities, equipment or vehicles by animals, people or things (see also fomites).
- Deadstock
- Dead sheep or other animals; with regard to risk, handling or disposal, the term is used in the Guide includes aborted foetuses and any birth by-products or other animal tissue.
- Disease outbreak
- When the incidence of illness from disease rises quickly and often to a high level within a short period of time. Sometimes the disease was not previously present in the flock, and sometimes it is an increase in a disease already present.
- Disinfecting: also Disinfection
- The use of a disinfection agent, i.e. a chemical that can kill pathogens, on areas being cleaned.
- Emerging Disease
- A new infection resulting from the evolution or change of an existing pathogen or parasite resulting in a change of host range, vector, pathogenicity or strain; or the occurrence of a previously unrecognised infection or disease.
- Endemic disease
- Continued presence of a disease in a specific population or area usually at the same level – often a low level. Also called enzootic disease.
- Equipment
- Used inclusively in the Guide to identify all tools and implements, skid-steers, tractors, tractor accessories, etc. used on the farm.
- Ewe
- A female sheep that is part of the breeding flock i.e. has been exposed to the ram for breeding purposes
- Farm Personnel
- Includes all full-time and part-time staff plus any family members who work at the operation.
- Feedlot
- Feedlots are operations that purposely acquire lambs or cull adults from off-farm for the purpose of feeding but not breeding. All animals are sent to slaughter.
- Fomites
- Any physical entities on which infectious material can be transmitted. They would include animals, people, their footwear and clothing, any equipment and tools brought into or used within a zone, dogs and cats, pests and vermin, and vehicles. Animals that act as fomites are themselves not infected but act as a mechanical transfer of infectious material.
- Foreign Animal Diseases – FADs
- Diseases not present in Canada and listed by the CFIA as reportable. See the list of Federally Reportable Diseases for Terrestrial Animals in Canada.
- Guardian animals and working animals
- Includes dogs (e.g. guardian dogs, herding dogs), llamas, donkeys, horses etc that have contact with and are used to manage the sheep for purposes such as moving the sheep, or guarding the sheep from predators.
- Infectious diseases
- Diseases caused by an infectious disease agent e.g. parasite, bacterial, virus, fungus, prion.
- Isolation
- The action of 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, either because it is known to be diseased or because its disease status is currently unknown. It may also be to protect an animal from contacting disease from infected flock members. The location is known as an isolation facility.
- Known health status
- The information that should be made available about a flock or an individual animal when offered for sale or intended for commingling, including disease history and the results of any diagnostic testing; flock health management practices; vaccination program detail sufficient to determine compatibility with the home flock; and housing and movement detail sufficient to identify any potential recent disease exposure.
- Lamb
- A female (ewe) or male (ram or castrated) that is less than 12 months of age and is not part of the breeding flock.
- Loading area
- An area that is designated for the loading and unloading of animals. This is not just the ramp but it also includes any holding area used for this purpose.
- Location
- A single location is defined as a property used to manage sheep (or livestock) that is self-contained and not divided by land or public road-way (e.g. concession road, highway – but not private laneway or walking path).
- Milking ewes
- These are ewes that are currently in production and are actually being milked for human consumption.
- Nursing ewe
- A ewe that is lactating and currently being nursed by a lamb or lambs.
- Organic material
- As used in the Standard, organic material is any substance that is derived from animal or vegetal matter.
- Other livestock
- Domestic livestock animals, specifically goats, cattle (dairy, beef, veal), horses, bison, water buffalo, farmed deer / elk, alpacas, llamas, swine, poultry, turkeys, ducks, geese.
- Pastures (Pâturages)
- Fenced areas used for livestock grazing at any time of year. Can include multi-use fields (e.g. graze after haying or aftermath feeding).
- Pathogen
- A bacterium, virus, parasite, prion, fungus or other micro-organism that can cause disease
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Gloves, clothing, footwear, head and face coverings, breathing apparatus and all cleansing agents, disinfectants and materials that limit, reduce or restrict contact by a pathogen to a human, by physical, airborne or any other means.
- Pest
- As used in the Guide, any insect, rodent or other small organism that can enter a sheep facility.
- Practice
- A repeatable method of carrying out a task or activity for a specific end result, including the use of equipment and products
- Protocol
- This includes any formal process that a producer used to define how they manage their operations on a day to day basis. The protocol may be formally documented but it may also be non-documented process that is strictly followed. The intent is to focus on the process rather than the documentation.
- Ram
- A male sheep of any age that is intact and has been or is being used for breeding purposes.
- Reportable disease
- Reportable diseases are defined under regulations enforced by CFIA. In cases of a suspected or confirmed case of a reportable disease outbreak, and in most cases of a FAD, zoonotic or emerging disease, CFIA is responsible for ensuring that required procedures are followed. A list of reportable diseases is available on the CFIA website.
- Restricted Access Zone
- An area inside the Controlled Access Zone where sheep are housed and where access by people or equipment is further restricted.
- Sheep
- A ewe, ram, castrated ram, or lamb.
- Sheep operation
- The buildings, dry lots / paddocks / corrals, and pastures used at any time of the year to manage sheep; includes any structures that are used in managing the sheep operation that don't have sheep, e.g. equipment shed, handling shed or pen, records room, clothing storage area, manure storage, feed storage. The sheep operation may have one or more than one location. It includes guardian or working animals (e.g. dogs, donkeys, llamas) and equipment (e.g. handling facilities, ATV etc.) used to manage the sheep.
- Vector
- Anything, including an organism such as an arthropod (e.g. a tick, mosquito, fly, flea, or mite), that does not cause disease itself but that transmits a pathogen by conveying pathogens from one host to another.
- Visitors
- Any non-personnel that come to the operation.
- Zoonotic disease
- An infectious disease that can be transmitted directly or indirectly (e.g. by a vector) from non-human animals, both wild and domestic, to humans or from humans to non-human animals.
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