Abstract

Infectious animal diseases cause major losses to livestock production. A significant part of them can easily be spread to humans e.g. as food borne infections, to wildlife as well as they can contaminate the environment. Infectious diseases are also a major cause of bad animal welfare. In the livestock production it is too late to undertake actions first when clinical signs of disease have developed. Instead, a continuous focus on disease prevention is needed which thereby also minimises the need for use of antimicrobials and subsequently also the risk for problems with antimicrobial resistance. The importance of prevention is emphasized in the new EU Community Animal Health Strategy, which therefore is given the name "Prevention is better than cure" (DG SANCO 2007). This chapter summarises the elements involved in the prevention and control of infectious diseases and principles and strategies for their use.

Published in

Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Agriculture
2012, number: 2, pages: 203-211
Book title: Prevention of infectious diseases in livestock and wild life with special focus on the use of antimicrobials. Ecology and Animal Health. 2011 In the book series Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Agriculture 2
ISBN: 978-91-86189-12-9
Publisher: The Baltic University Press, Uppsala University

Authors' information