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Always take time to ask the vendor questions,
regardless of whether you are purchasing directly
from a farm or from a market. Minimum
questions for vendors:
•
Do they test or monitor for any disease?
•
What does the farm routinely vaccinate for?
•
Does the farm currently have any of the
diseases you wish to avoid?
•
In the past has the farm had any of the
diseases you wish to avoid? How long ago?
•
Have these animals been tested, treated
or vaccinated for anything?
•
When were they last treated? With which
product and how many times?
Be cautious:
•
You must judge the accuracy of the information you are given by the vendor and evaluate the
disease risks that purchased animals from this source might pose to your farm.
•
Judge the effectiveness of any vaccine or treatments given on the source farm. What are the risks
if animals haven’t been treated correctly?
•
Ask the vendor if they can provide any supporting evidence or if you can contact their vet about
the health status of the farm.
•
Consider arranging for animals of unknown disease status to be tested pre-purchase.
When risks are identified there are usually actions that can be taken to respond to these risks.
Work with your vet to develop a specific action plan for animals entering your farm.
Quarantine
The quarantine period provides a monitoring
period during which animals that were incubating
disease on the day of purchase are likely to show
symptoms. Regardless of the source, all purchased
animals should be placed in isolation for a
minimum of three weeks. The isolation period
may differ between diseases, specific disease
advice should be discussed with your vet.
Buyer’s checklist
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