Goats

You have an important role to play in protecting your property and the entire goat industry from biosecurity threats.

On this page, you will find the tools to implement the simple, everyday biosecurity practices to protect the health of your livestock, limit production losses and help maintain market access for Australia’s goat producers.

Disease alert: Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)

FMD is a very serious disease that can affect goats. Australia is currently free of this disease, however there have been recent cases of FMD in Indonesia. To learn more about this disease, and how you can prepare, click here.

Fact sheet and poster for avoiding JD in goats now available

Animal Health Australia and the Goat Industry Council of Australia have produced a poster and fact sheet to help producers understand, avoid and manage the impacts of Johne’s disease (JD) in their goat herds. Both the fact sheet and the poster have been provided as professional, print-ready PDF files that can be downloaded for free and are formatted to be printed by a professional printing company in a finish and style of your choice or they can simply be printed from the home or office printer.

Tips for using the fact sheets and posters

Owners of larger goat operations are encouraged to place the posters around the their property to remind and educate staff, contractors, family and friends who help out on the property about avoiding JD on your property. All goat producers, show societies, suppliers or anyone in the goat industry are encouraged to print and hand out the fact sheets from their displays and stalls at field days, royal shows or any event where goat producers are likely to be present.

Poster

High resolution professional print version

Low resolution print version

Fact sheet

High resolution professional print version

Low resolution print version

National Kid Rearing Plan

The National Kid Rearing Plan was developed for the Goat Industry Council of Australia to control the spread of Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis (CAE) and Johne’s disease. These are insidious diseases that have no cure and affect the health of goats, as well as sheep and cattle, resulting in significant financial losses for producers, especially those with dairy herds. Prevention is the best way to protect all goat herds from these diseases.

The National Kid Rearing Plan, backed up by farm biosecurity is the best form of prevention.

Put simply, the plan involves removing newborn kids from their does to reduce their exposure to infection and allow them develop natural immunity as they mature.

Participation in the National Kid Rearing Plan is voluntary and the plan is likely to be of greatest benefit to farmers of dairy goats and other intensively run goat herds.

Goat farmers who wish to claim points from kid rearing under the Johne’s disease assurance (GoatMAP) must comply with all aspects of the National Kid Rearing Plan.

Whether producing milk, meat or fibre, the recommended on-farm biosecurity practices for goat producers are contained in the National Biosecurity Reference Manual: Grazing Livestock.

The manual provides a set of voluntary, cost-effective guidelines to help reduce the risk of disease entering a property, spreading through the livestock population, and/or being passed to surrounding livestock operations. It outlines recommended measures under five management areas: Livestock; People, Equipment and vehicles; Feed and water; Pests and weeds; Management.

For goat producers looking to meet Livestock Production Assurance requirements, download the On-farm biosecurity plan template.

Biosecurity toolkit

As an goat producer, the best way to protect yourself from biosecurity risks is to keep diseases, pests and weeds off your property.

Always insist on a properly completed National Goat Health Declaration and National Vendor Declaration when purchasing stock, when offering cattle for sale, and when mandated by inter-state movement requirements.

Another important tool to help minimise the risk of disease in goats is the National Kid Rearing Plan, which chiefly targets two major debilitating diseases: Johne’s disease and caprine arthritis encephalitis.

Resources

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	National Kid Rearing Plan (1 MB)
	GoatMAP show sale exhibition venue audit form and certificate of compliance-MS Word (109 KB)
	GoatMAP Show, Sale & Exhibition Certificate of Compliance (200 KB)
	National Farm Biosecurity Reference Manual - Grazing Livestock (2 MB)
	Farm Biosecurity for Livestock Producers: Booklet (1 MB)
	Farm Biosecurity Action Planner 2019 (1,017 KB)
	Farm Biosecurity sign (372 KB)
	Goat Show and Sale Declaration (342 KB)
	Stock Receival Inspection Record (95 KB)
	Vehicle Contamination Cleaning Record (63 KB)
	Visitor and Staff Risk Assessment (330 KB)
	Visitor Register (79 KB)

Videos

Farm Biosecurity essentials: Farm inputs

Farm Biosecurity essentials: Farm outputs

Biosecurity and people movement on farms

FarmBiosecurity phone app

Farm Biosecurity essentials: Feral animals and weeds

Farm Biosecurity essentials: Production practices

Farm Biosecurity essentials: Train, plan, record

Vehicle and equipment biosecurity on farms

More information

The single biggest threat to the goat industry’s sustainability is an outbreak of an emergency animal disease. That’s why the Goat Industry Council of Australia has put into place a series of animal health policies at both the state and national levels to guard against threats to the industry’s biosecurity.

Australia’s National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) identifies animals so that we can trace them quickly if we need to. It applies to anyone with cattle, sheep, pigs or goats.

If there is an outbreak of an emergency disease we can quickly trace back to identify animals that might already be infected, and trace forward to identify animals that are at the greatest risk of infection.

For more information see: