 Whether it's the veterinarian or a third-grade class, the feed salesperson or 4-H club members, other people sometimes visit our farms and ranches. These business and education reasons are important, but precautions need to be in place to make sure pathogens don't arrive with, or go home with, visitors. These guidelines will help you prevent visitors from potentially contaminating your premises or transferring pathogens elsewhere. As you watch this video, pause after each point and jot down how you might apply that guideline to your operation. Later, write out your complete farm and barn access biosecurity plan so you can share it with others. Designate one secure entry point to your farm or ranch for visitors. Post a sign with a phone number to call or gain admittance. Then either admit only visitors you trust won't contaminate your operation or those you can examine before they enter. Explain your protocol for entering the premises, parking and signing in and why those steps are important. Have visitors park their vehicles in a designated area away from animals. Potentially contaminated dirt and manure easily can ride onto your operation on tires, fenders and under carriages. Unless the visitor's vehicle is needed to treat or transport animals, have the visitor ride in your vehicle if you need to go onto the farm or ranch. If the veterinarian's supply truck or the trucker's semi must travel on your premises, make sure they're clean and stick to a designated route. In some circumstances, you might want to require a vehicle wash in and wash out. Facilities can be provided, especially on poultry and swine operations. Ask visitors to provide their names and contact information in your visitor log to help pinpoint a pathogen source in the event of a disease outbreak. Ask if they have visited other farms or ranches recently, especially outside the U.S. and note that in your visitor log. Especially on poultry and swine operations, ask if visitors have had influenza in the past week. Before allowing them to enter a barn, make sure visitors are wearing clean clothing. For some biosecure facilities, you may require visitors to put on disposable coveralls over their clothing to reduce pathogen transmission. Where biosecurity is extremely important, you may require that the few people who need to enter shower in and shower out. This may include employees and veterinarians who must enter swine confinement and poultry operations. Clean footwear is especially important. Have several sizes of rubber boots at your operation or at each barn that visitors put on instead of wearing their own footwear. The price of boots is small, compared to a biosecurity breach. After each group of visitors, use soap, water, and a brush to remove organic matter from the boots, then disinfect them. A great way to disinfect boots is to run them through a cycle of the washing machine with a disinfectant following the label instructions. Then air dry the boots on an inverted rack. Another option, especially if a large group visits, is to provide disposable covers that fit over their footwear. Ask visitors to use the soap, water, and brush you provide to remove visible debris, such as manure or bedding, from their footwear, before slipping on the covers. Simply having visitors step into a disinfectant foot bath before and after entering isn't enough. The appropriate contact time for a particular disinfectant is critical, so a quick step in the foot bath probably just gives a false sense of security. If the footwear is dirty, it can't be disinfected without first being cleaned anyway. A physical barrier adds another level of biosecurity. On the public or dirty side of the room, visitors leave their shoes and other clothing, depending on the situation. On the private or clean side of the room, visitors put on the footwear and appropriate clothing that are supplied. Visitors have to lift their legs up from the public or dirty side and put them down on the private or clean side. When the visit is complete, they leave the footwear and clothing on the private side of the barrier and finish cleaning up back on the public side. When visitors leave the barn, have them throw away their disposable coveralls and shoe covers and wash their hands with soap and water. Even if visitors only are going into a pasture or outdoor arena, practice being clean, going in and cleaning as they come out. Ask visitors to avoid petting or having other direct contact with animals while on the farm. Children especially will want to pet calves, lambs and chicks, but the risks probably aren't worth it. Anyone who comes in contact with the animal shouldn't wash their hands, preferably with soap and water, or at least with hand sanitizer, right away and absolutely before eating or drinking anything. If you and your visitors are seeing different groups of livestock, carry out biosecurity steps in between. For example, from the farrowing house to the feeder room or between calf and feed-out pens. Move from younger to older groups of animals and from healthy to sick animals. Suggest visitors change clothes if they're not going directly home or at least change their shoes. Provide plastic bags so visitors can put dirty clothes and shoes in them if they brought a change. Encourage them to wash their clothes as soon as they return home. Have visitors again wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water at your washing station before they leave the premises. The bottom line is whether your farm or ranch visitors are there for business or for education. Following these biosecurity guidelines will reduce risks to both people and animals.