Author: Rick Koelsch, Livestock Environmental Engineer, University of Nebraska, rkoelsch1@unl.edu
Management practices targeting pathogen issues focus on establishing multiple barriers between the pathogen source and surface and ground water, each barrier designed to lessen the risk of pathogens.
The “Agricultural Environmental Management” (AEM) program originally developed at Cornell University for dairy producers in watersheds that contribute drinking water for major New York metropolitan areas promotes a three-barrier approach. The AEM program suggests that the first barrier involves reducing the potential for pathogens to enter the farm through:
- the introduction of infected animals;
- the transport of infected manure onto the farm on clothing, boots, or equipment;
- pets, rodents, and other animals can transport contaminated manure from
The second barrier targets minimizing cross-contamination among animals, and multiplication on the farm can be minimized by:
- keeping calf-raising areas clean and
- ensuring that all feeds and feeding utensils are clean.
Your veterinarian is a very important partner in identifying these first two barriers.
The third barrier is to restrict movement of contaminated feces into watercourses by:
- preventing runoff from animal housing, exercise lots, and manure storage
- applying manure from younger animals including calves to non-hydrologically sensitive areas.
Young animals typically shed the greatest number of pathogens. Targeting management of the health and the manure of young animals often pays the greatest benefit. However, pathogen risks can be reduced for all confined livestock. Any practice designed to minimize runoff connections between manure (from animal housing, manure storage, and land application sites) and local surface water is a pathogen best management practice (BMP). Runoff collection ponds, vegetative filters, no- or reduced tillage systems, and other land erosion control practices are all pathogen BMPs.
Additional reading:
New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. 2005. AEM Tier 2 Worksheet, Water-Borne Pathogens.
