Short Communication
Multi-species visit rates to farmyards: Implications for biosecurity
Highlights
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- Multi-species visit rates to 11 cattle farmyards in Northern Ireland over a 12 month period are reported.
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- Cats were the most frequently visiting species to farmyards and also had the highest contribution to overall intrusion rates.
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- In overall terms, badgers had the least contribution to intrusion rates.
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- Interactions between wildlife species at disease transmission interfaces, such as farmyards, may be an important aspect of disease epidemiology.
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- Multi-species approaches to reporting wildlife visit rates at potential disease transmission interfaces provide greater information in relation to biosecurity.
Abstract
Disease transmission dynamics between wildlife and livestock are likely to be affected by contacts between the two populations. In this study, rates of visitation of rodents, badgers, red foxes and cats to 11 farmyards were quantified from July 2012 to August 2013. There was variation in rates of visitation between different species and between farmyards. Rates of visitation were 60.3% (n = 2374) for cats, 19.1% (n = 751) for rodents, 16.7% (n = 657) for red foxes and 3.9% (n = 153) for badgers. Multi-species visits are relevant to disease transmission, highlighting the need for increased biosecurity on farms.
Keywords
- Farm biosecurity;
- Badgers;
- Cats;
- Red foxes;
- Rodents
Copyright © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
