Quarantine & Biosecurity
Most disease arrives on your farm in a trailer. Quarantine is the cheapest herd health measure there is, and the easiest to skip when the new doe is lovely and you're busy.
Quarantine
Record a quarantine with its start date, reason, and expected end. The goat stays flagged as quarantined until you close it.
When to quarantine:
- Any incoming animal, however good the source herd's reputation
- Animals returning from a show, a lease, or a buck's farm
- A sick goat where the cause isn't known
A common guideline is at least 30 days, long enough for most things to show themselves and for testing to come back. Your vet may advise longer depending on what you're screening for.
Separate air space and separate water, not a pen on the other side of the same barn. Do chores for quarantined animals last, and don't carry buckets, boots, or equipment between groups. A quarantine that shares a fence line is a formality, not a barrier.
Testing During Quarantine
Quarantine is the window for disease testing — CAE, CL, and Johne's as standard, plus M. ovi for pack goats. Record results as health events so they stay on the animal's permanent record.
Results take time to come back, which is a large part of why the isolation period is as long as it is.
Biosecurity Log
Beyond individual animals, log the herd-level work:
| Type | |
|---|---|
| Disinfection / cleaning | |
| Quarantine setup | |
| Visitor protocol | |
| New arrival screening | |
| Pest / rodent control | |
| Water test | |
| Feed storage check | |
| Other |
Each entry records the date, the product used, who did it, and notes.
Why Log It
Two reasons beyond your own memory:
- Buyers and shows increasingly ask. A farm that can show a testing and biosecurity record is a farm people buy from with more confidence
- When something does get in, the log is how you work out what changed — a new animal, a visitor, a feed source
Other goat people arrive wearing boots that were in someone else's barn this morning. Boot covers cost pennies. Logging visits means that if something appears three weeks later, you know who was here.