Over the last few years, the interest of decision-makers and control agencies in biosecurity (BS), aiming at preventing and controlling the introduction and spread of infectious diseases, has considerably increased. Nevertheless, previous studies highlighted a low implementation level of biosecurity measures (BSM), especially in cattle farms; different reasons were identified such as perceived costs, utility, importance, increased workload and lack of knowledge. In order to convince cattle farmers to adopt BSM, it is necessary to gather more information and evidence on their cost-effectiveness and their importance or utility in terms of disease prevention and control. The objectives of this study were to determine whether the farm or farmers' profile correlated with the implementation level of BSM and if there was a positive correlation between the BSM implementation and the farm production and health parameters. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews conducted in 100 Belgian farms as part of a stratified and randomized survey. The Regional Animal Health Services provided the farm health status and production data. A general BS score and five sub-scores related to the five BS compartments (bio-exclusion, bio-compartmentation, bio-containment, bio-prevention and bio-preservation) were calculated for each farm based on the implementation level of different BSM grouped in 16 domains. The study highlighted a significant and negative correlation between the mortality rates in adult cattle (over 24 months of age) and young calves (aged 0-7 days) and different BS compartment scores. The study also demonstrated that the farms having a higher general BS score were indeed more likely to have a BVD-free status. These evidence-based findings are encouraging as they demonstrate the benefits of implementing BSM and could promote their adoption by farmers.

中文翻译：

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初步研究评估了更高水平实施生物安全措施对比利时养牛场的农场生产力和健康状况的潜在好处。

在过去的几年中，决策者和控制机构对生物安全（BS）的兴趣大大增加，其目的是预防和控制传染病的传入和传播。然而，先前的研究强调了生物安全措施（BSM）的实施水平较低，尤其是在养牛场；确定了各种不同的原因，例如感知成本，实用性，重要性，工作量增加和知识不足。为了说服养牛者采用BSM，有必要收集更多信息和证据，说明其成本效益以及在疾病预防和控制方面的重要性或效用。这项研究的目的是确定农场还是农民的 概况与BSM的实施水平相关，以及BSM的实施与农场生产和健康参数之间是否存在正相关。通过分层和随机调查的一部分，通过在100个比利时农场进行的面对面采访收集了数据。区域动物卫生服务局提供了农场的健康状况和生产数据。根据不同BSM分组的实施水平，为每个农场计算了BS总体得分和与五个BS隔室（生物隔离，生物隔离，生物围堵，生物防护和生物保存）相关的五个子评分。在16个域中。这项研究强调了成年牛（超过24个月大）和年幼犊牛（0-7天大）的死亡率和不同的BS隔室得分之间存在显着的负相关性。该研究还表明，具有较高总体BS分数的农场确实更可能具有无BVD的状态。这些基于证据的发现令人鼓舞，因为它们证明了实施BSM的好处并可以促进农民采用BSM。