- Joined
- Nov 7, 2012
- Messages
- 5,172
- Location (City and/or State)
- South of Southern California, but not Mexico
I have spent a few days on another forum, got bored with some rhetoric, and see that google for the most part recognized this forum and it's archives most readily. I am thinking if I'm going to post anything of merit, it ought to be here.
But I digress, some one banned from this forum expressed dismay about what is "Bio-security"?
A quick look at wiki by using the terms in one search like this on google "bio security wiki"
you get . . .
"Biosecurity is a set of preventive measures designed to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases, quarantined pests, invasive alien species, living modified organisms. While biosecurity does encompass the prevention of the intentional removal (theft) of biological materials from research laboratories, this definition is narrower in scope than the definition used by many experts, including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.[1] These preventative measures are a combination of systems and practices put into its place at legitimate bioscience laboratories to prevent the use of dangerous pathogens and toxins for malicious use, as well as by customs agents and agricultural and natural resource managers to prevent the spread of these biological agents in natural and managed. Reference no. 123 ecosystems.[2] Although security is usually thought of in terms of "Guards, Gates, and Guns", biosecurity encompasses much more than that and requires the cooperation of scientists, technicians, policy makers, security engineers, and law enforcement officials. "
When I use the term "Bio-security" here on TFO, I mean the measures I use to prevent the spread of disease among my tortoises.
I have worked in food production, zoological gardens, and Bio Pharmaceutical companies where not following relatively simple rules or protocols can result in an actual loss of lives (people or animals), millions of dollars in work/research, and my job. For the most part it comes down to what you do with your hands, tools, and enclosures, their short history of use, and what order you do things in.
For me, it means not mixing species (live animals in one enclosure) or any items from those enclosures, or what I place in or remove from those enclosures.
If you have a single pen, inside or outside with a group of 2 Russian tortoises, for example, and no other reptiles, then for the most part you need only think about washing your hands, before and after you handle any animals or items from their enclosures. Like prepare their salad (if you make one) before you clean the old one from yesterday or change their water. That way the clean food is not 'touched' by soiled items, even though it is all one enclosure or system.
The more diversity you have of animals, and species, and even how long you have had the animals all come into consideration.
One key thing we have all in common is a quarantine period. This can be loosely defined as the time/procedures it takes to be assured the tortoises are healthy and disease free.
Over the past year I have purchased many Pancake tortoises. The first two from vendor "one" both were sub-adults and in my opinion low weight for their size.
At this point they will be in a room of their own relative to any other animals in my collection. I will seek to learn about the history of the animals from the dealer, but I don't let that guide my practice.
The box arrives from FedEx and my priority is to get the tortoises out of the box. I put on latex gloves (nitrile if you are allergic to latex), and place the up-opened box in a large trash bag. I cut the box open and take the bag with the tortoises out, but still held over the box, and immediately get a weight, then place the tortoise in shallow water, with a cover. The packing materials are moved away from over the box placed in a large trash bag.
Once to tortoises are soaking, I remove the gloves into the trash bag, seal the bag and into the trash it goes. None of the shipping materials are kept. It came from a dealer, it's soiled beyond cleaning.
As an aside, I remove the shipping labels, and more often than not, there is another older label underneath, so I know the box was recycle from some other animal shipment. Some other potential contamination, and poor business practice for the dealer to inform me of their other business.
So - now there are two pancake tortoises sitting each in their own shallow water, with a pre-soak weight. After about 1/2 hour I put on fresh gloves and re-weight, and note the feces that are almost alway going to be present in that soak water. I get to learn much here. Many dealers and private breeders fast an ani,al before shipping, the worms if present seem to more readily come out after a short fast. So I get a good first look to see adult worms if present, get an idea that indeed the tortoises were eating at all, and now have an idea by weight gain just how dehydrated they were.
I spray the scale off with straight non-sented ammonia (outside). I place each tortoise in it's own separate housing, which is where it will live for the duration of it's quarantine. This housing needs to be simple, and meet the needs of the tortoise.
Hides from cereal boxes are good and can be thrown away when soiled, newspaper as a substrate works well for many species.
A really good idea posted here by Baoh, is to use aluminum baking pans (like for turkeys), with a moist substrate for a hide and humidity, and then when you sort out if a worming regime is needed, you can bake it to kill any worm eggs, and still have a high humidity place for the tortoise each day.
I decided to use the pan for cooking the orchid bark in the hide, but use a sweater box with a hole in the side for the hide itself. For a water tray I like to use another sweater box or kitty litter pan with one side cut down to the height of one inch. This way when I clean it, I pick it up by tilting it back, and spill no water.
***********************
In review, Bio-secuity is the set of practices used to reduce disease transmission. The most important place to start is with new animals because without regard to the stories we hear from the source of the animal, if they bring disease into your collection, it's your responsibility to ensure no disease transmission occurs, not the source.
I have only commented on how I open the box and how the tortoises, in this case pancakes, are kept. I'll post more about my own protocols in following posts, please make additions of what you do.
Will
But I digress, some one banned from this forum expressed dismay about what is "Bio-security"?
A quick look at wiki by using the terms in one search like this on google "bio security wiki"
you get . . .
"Biosecurity is a set of preventive measures designed to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases, quarantined pests, invasive alien species, living modified organisms. While biosecurity does encompass the prevention of the intentional removal (theft) of biological materials from research laboratories, this definition is narrower in scope than the definition used by many experts, including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.[1] These preventative measures are a combination of systems and practices put into its place at legitimate bioscience laboratories to prevent the use of dangerous pathogens and toxins for malicious use, as well as by customs agents and agricultural and natural resource managers to prevent the spread of these biological agents in natural and managed. Reference no. 123 ecosystems.[2] Although security is usually thought of in terms of "Guards, Gates, and Guns", biosecurity encompasses much more than that and requires the cooperation of scientists, technicians, policy makers, security engineers, and law enforcement officials. "
When I use the term "Bio-security" here on TFO, I mean the measures I use to prevent the spread of disease among my tortoises.
I have worked in food production, zoological gardens, and Bio Pharmaceutical companies where not following relatively simple rules or protocols can result in an actual loss of lives (people or animals), millions of dollars in work/research, and my job. For the most part it comes down to what you do with your hands, tools, and enclosures, their short history of use, and what order you do things in.
For me, it means not mixing species (live animals in one enclosure) or any items from those enclosures, or what I place in or remove from those enclosures.
If you have a single pen, inside or outside with a group of 2 Russian tortoises, for example, and no other reptiles, then for the most part you need only think about washing your hands, before and after you handle any animals or items from their enclosures. Like prepare their salad (if you make one) before you clean the old one from yesterday or change their water. That way the clean food is not 'touched' by soiled items, even though it is all one enclosure or system.
The more diversity you have of animals, and species, and even how long you have had the animals all come into consideration.
One key thing we have all in common is a quarantine period. This can be loosely defined as the time/procedures it takes to be assured the tortoises are healthy and disease free.
Over the past year I have purchased many Pancake tortoises. The first two from vendor "one" both were sub-adults and in my opinion low weight for their size.
At this point they will be in a room of their own relative to any other animals in my collection. I will seek to learn about the history of the animals from the dealer, but I don't let that guide my practice.
The box arrives from FedEx and my priority is to get the tortoises out of the box. I put on latex gloves (nitrile if you are allergic to latex), and place the up-opened box in a large trash bag. I cut the box open and take the bag with the tortoises out, but still held over the box, and immediately get a weight, then place the tortoise in shallow water, with a cover. The packing materials are moved away from over the box placed in a large trash bag.
Once to tortoises are soaking, I remove the gloves into the trash bag, seal the bag and into the trash it goes. None of the shipping materials are kept. It came from a dealer, it's soiled beyond cleaning.
As an aside, I remove the shipping labels, and more often than not, there is another older label underneath, so I know the box was recycle from some other animal shipment. Some other potential contamination, and poor business practice for the dealer to inform me of their other business.
So - now there are two pancake tortoises sitting each in their own shallow water, with a pre-soak weight. After about 1/2 hour I put on fresh gloves and re-weight, and note the feces that are almost alway going to be present in that soak water. I get to learn much here. Many dealers and private breeders fast an ani,al before shipping, the worms if present seem to more readily come out after a short fast. So I get a good first look to see adult worms if present, get an idea that indeed the tortoises were eating at all, and now have an idea by weight gain just how dehydrated they were.
I spray the scale off with straight non-sented ammonia (outside). I place each tortoise in it's own separate housing, which is where it will live for the duration of it's quarantine. This housing needs to be simple, and meet the needs of the tortoise.
Hides from cereal boxes are good and can be thrown away when soiled, newspaper as a substrate works well for many species.
A really good idea posted here by Baoh, is to use aluminum baking pans (like for turkeys), with a moist substrate for a hide and humidity, and then when you sort out if a worming regime is needed, you can bake it to kill any worm eggs, and still have a high humidity place for the tortoise each day.
I decided to use the pan for cooking the orchid bark in the hide, but use a sweater box with a hole in the side for the hide itself. For a water tray I like to use another sweater box or kitty litter pan with one side cut down to the height of one inch. This way when I clean it, I pick it up by tilting it back, and spill no water.
***********************
In review, Bio-secuity is the set of practices used to reduce disease transmission. The most important place to start is with new animals because without regard to the stories we hear from the source of the animal, if they bring disease into your collection, it's your responsibility to ensure no disease transmission occurs, not the source.
I have only commented on how I open the box and how the tortoises, in this case pancakes, are kept. I'll post more about my own protocols in following posts, please make additions of what you do.
Will