Biosecurity Basics
When we speak of biosecurity, we generally think about
protecting our society against biological attack from other
countries, or even terrorists. But in the context of growing,
biosecurity is the exclusion (not sanitation) of disease-causing organisms that can destroy an operation. Biosecurity is
a larger issue than a normal sanitation program. Biosecurity
looks at controlling sources of disease from outside of a facility rather than simply cleaning up equipment and work surfaces. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth
a pound of cure. Sanitation works within a facility. Biosecurity
is an extra ring of protection outside of the facility.
Indoor growing systems are touted as being more immune
from disease, especially soilless systems, because growers have
effectively cut out the possibility of infection by removing the
soil, as a large number of diseases are soil-borne. However, once
a room is sterilized and operating, disease-causing organisms
can gain entry via avenues a grower probably did not anticipate.
Organisms can hitchhike into a facility in many ways.
Bacteria travel and live primarily in water. This makes bacteria especially troublesome in hydroponic and aquaponic
environments. Whatever you can do to keep bacteria from
entering your water system will save you from tremendous
headaches and loss. Fungi spores can be moved in many ways
as well—carried by people or animals, moved into a facility in
soil or by bringing in infected plant material. For example,
let’s say a delivery truck has been driving around in an
infected field before it comes to a facility to drop off supplies.
The supplies might be perfectly fine, but what about the
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pathogen-infested mud that falls off of the truck
and is tracked into a facility by workers? Have a
plan to make the trucks deliver products away
from the main entry point.
There are many things you can do to make your
operation more insulated from disease-causing
organisms. Here are five key areas:
Limit Visitors
Do not allow tours of the facility. It is easy
to have a soft spot for school children who
want a field trip, or curious relatives who
want a guided tour. Don’t do it. Put in
windows that visitors can look through. Tire
“Biosecurity looks at
controlling sources of
disease from outside of a
facility rather than simply
cleaning up equipment and
work surfaces.”
shops and other industries use viewing windows in their operations because of insurance and liability concerns so customers
are used to this type of restriction on tours.
Visitors often want to touch everything and
this is how diseases are transferred.
In aquaponic operations, fish will often get
spooked by visitors and some will even jump
out of the tank onto the floor. Banging on the
tanks, flash photography and even splashing
the water can cause fish to panic. Fish, like any
other animal grown for meat, will lose weight
if spooked or stressed too much.
And it is not rare to see fish
jump out of the tank when
they are spooked. It is natural
for people to want to pick up
a fish and put it back into
the tank. If they did this at
another facility before coming to
yours, you can be asking for trouble.
Never give tours to other people
in the business. Their standards of
cleanliness might not match your own.
Another example is the visitor who smokes
and rolls his own tobacco. He can inadvertently transmit tobacco mosaic virus to your
tomatoes. Tobacco mosaic virus is easily spread
by direct contact with tobacco products on the
hands, clothing and tools of those who have handled tobacco
products. All of these problems can be avoided by using visitor windows for viewing the facility.