CORD-19_Custom_license_subset  

CORD-19:07ad0ecdf3197ceeb5c2999424e3e379ca8699ac JSONTXT 9 Projects

Annnotations TAB TSV DIC JSON TextAE

Id Subject Object Predicate Lexical cue
T1 0-51 Sentence denotes Biosecurity practices in Belgian veal calf farming:
T2 52-125 Sentence denotes Level of implementation, attitudes, strengths, weaknesses and constraints
T3 127-135 Sentence denotes Abstract
T4 138-299 Sentence denotes The impact of infectious animal diseases and the measures to control them are of great importance for animal health, public health, food safety, and the economy.
T5 300-483 Sentence denotes In order to implement the European biosecurity in cattle farms have found that the overall application of biosecurity measures was low (Sarrazin et al., 2014; Renault et al., 2018a) .
T6 484-598 Sentence denotes As far as we are aware, no studies regarding biosecurity in intensive veal-rearing systems have yet been executed.
T7 599-872 Sentence denotes Biosecurity is defined as all measures that aim to prevent pathogens from entering or leaving a herd, referred to as external biosecurity, and all measures aiming to reduce the spread of pathogens within a herd, referred to as internal biosecurity (Damiaans et al., 2018) .
T8 873-986 Sentence denotes External biosecurity contains measures concerning animal movements, e.g., purchase and transport of live animals.
T9 987-1139 Sentence denotes Biosecurity also includes the entrance of visitors, such as the herd veterinarian, and possible contact with other animals of the same or other species.
T10 1140-1300 Sentence denotes Internal biosecurity contains measures concerning the health management of the animals, compartmentation of different age groups, and cleaning and disinfection.
T11 1301-1474 Sentence denotes In Europe and North America, a high number of excess dairy and, to a lesser degree, beef calves are reared in the highly integrated veal industry (Brown and Claxton, 2011) .
T12 1475-1628 Sentence denotes The veal sector is strongly integrated and industrialized and is therefore substantially different from conventional cattle farms (Pardon et al., 2014) .
T13 1629-1782 Sentence denotes Therefore, it cannot be assumed that biosecurity measures and levels of implementation on veal farms are comparable to conventional dairy and beef farms.
T14 1783-1964 Sentence denotes The veal-rearing system is highly similar throughout the majority of the main veal-producing countries, often with veal companies working across borders (Sans and Fontguyon, 2009 ).
T15 1965-2095 Sentence denotes Therefore, biosecurity in Belgian veal farms could, to a certain extent, be considered representative of European veal production.
T16 2096-2234 Sentence denotes In Europe, before entering the veal sector, calves from dairy or beef farms are collected by salesmen and transported to a sorting center.
T17 2235-2301 Sentence denotes The age when leaving the farm of origin differs between countries.
T18 2302-2460 Sentence denotes In the sorting center, calves are sorted by breed, bodyweight, and conformation, and are thereafter transported to the veal farms (Schoonmaker et al., 2002) .
T19 2461-2524 Sentence denotes White veal calves are slaughtered at a maximum age of 8 months.
T20 2525-2607 Sentence denotes Most veal calf farms in Belgium are part of a veal company (Pardon et al., 2014) .
T21 2608-2744 Sentence denotes Veal companies organize the veal farming process from the top down, with their own sorting centers, feed factories, and slaughterhouses.
T22 2745-2919 Sentence denotes The companies generally own the calves, distribute feed to the farms, and impose some management requirements, while the farmer gets paid for each calf he raises on his farm.
T23 2920-3125 Sentence denotes The veal sector might benefit from improved biosecurity since several researchers have suggested that improved disease prevention is possible through increased biosecurity on the farm (Roca et al., 2015) .
T24 3126-3341 Sentence denotes Due to the high degree of commingling calves from different farms of origin, infected calves can lead to a rapid spread of disease on the veal calf farm, causing severe health and welfare issues and economic losses.
T25 3342-3477 Sentence denotes As biosecurity may (partially) prevent these losses, it is considered a cost-effective method of prevention (Van Schaik et al., 2001) .
T26 3478-3733 Sentence denotes The high level of antimicrobial use in veal-rearing is causing considerable concerns (Pardon et al., 2012) as it facilitates development of antimicrobial resistance (McEwen and Fedorka-Cray, 2002) as has previously been demonstrated (Catry et al., 2016) .
T27 3734-3950 Sentence denotes As shown in other animal species, a possible way to reduce the level of antimicrobial use and its subsequent resistance selection is to improve the level of biosecurity (Postma et al., 2016; Collineau et al., 2017) .
T28 3951-4098 Sentence denotes Biosecurity practices are often neglected by cattle farmers who assume that the risk of infection in their animals is low (Nöremark et al., 2016) .
T29 4099-4247 Sentence denotes This assumption is likely not the case for veal farmers since the risk of infection is known to be high (Pardon et al., 2011; Knight et al., 2013) .
T30 4248-4379 Sentence denotes Moreover, cattle farmers have indicated a lack of information regarding biosecurity (Damiaans et al., 2018; Higgins et al., 2018) .
T31 4380-4496 Sentence denotes This lack can be presumed to be similar among veal farmers because comparable channels of information are available.
T32 4497-4620 Sentence denotes Thus, in order to improve biosecurity on veal farms, its strengths, weaknesses, and constraints should first be identified.
T33 4621-4815 Sentence denotes Therefore this study aimed to determine the main biosecurity measures in veal production and the application level of these measures in Belgian veal farms as reported or observed during a visit.
T34 4816-5003 Sentence denotes First, a list of cattle diseases that are either endemic in Belgium or at risk of (re)emergence was developed according to the methodology previously described by Renault et al. (2018b) .
T35 5004-5103 Sentence denotes An initial list of diseases was based on a literature review after a search of the PubMed database.
T36 5104-5221 Sentence denotes In the list, both calf diseases and diseases of high importance in cattle, or with zoonotic potential, were included.
T37 5222-5351 Sentence denotes Diseases not occurring in, or not at risk of emergence in Belgium (never reported in Europe), were removed from the initial list.
T38 5352-5456 Sentence denotes Second, three different data sources were accessed to select the most important diseases from this list:
T39 5457-5882 Sentence denotes 1) a combination of recently described prioritization methods applied to the literature search, including all notifiable diseases (ANSES, 2010; Havelaar et al., 2010; Humblet et al., 2012; McIntyre et al., 2014; Ciliberti et al., 2015) ; 2) data on disease occurrences in the last three years, provided by regional animal health centers; and 3) an online survey among bovine veterinary practitioners (Renault et al., 2018a) .
T40 5883-6045 Sentence denotes Based on the final list of diseases (Table 1) , a review of the literature on risk factors and biosecurity measures related to each of the diseases was performed.
T41 6046-6288 Sentence denotes This review was kept as broad as possible to have a complete overview of all factors concerning biosecurity, and then crossreferenced with previous biosecurity questionnaires and a biosecurity reference work (Dewulf and Van Immerseel, 2018) .
T42 6289-6726 Sentence denotes For this reason, a search of the PubMed database was performed with this combination of terms: "name of disease and/or pathogen," or "cattle," "risk factors" or "epidemiology" or "prevalence" or "biosecurity measures" or "control measures." The list of risk factors and biosecurity measures for each disease was integrated into an exhaustive list with all known (published) risk factors and biosecurity measures relevant for veal calves.
T43 6727-6812 Sentence denotes If possible, a corresponding biosecurity measure was identified for each risk factor.
T44 6813-7075 Sentence denotes Risk factors that cannot be controlled, or for which no biosecurity measure is available (e.g., birth weight, weather), as well as risk factors related to parturition or shortly thereafter (e.g., hygiene at parturition and provision of colostrum) were discarded.
T45 7076-7236 Sentence denotes Though this last category is considered important, these risk factors are outside the control of the veal farmer because the animals arrive at two weeks of age.
T46 7237-7299 Sentence denotes The total list of biosecurity measures is provided in Annex 1.
T47 7300-7444 Sentence denotes This table also provides the number of risk factors each measure addresses, and the number of diseases for which it was cited in the literature.
T48 7445-7587 Sentence denotes In Table 2 , an overview of the 12 most important biosecurity measures, and their relation to the 34 most important calf diseases is provided.
T49 7588-7868 Sentence denotes Based on the list of biosecurity measures and complemented with content and experience from previous questionnaires concerning biosecurity in pig and broiler production (www.biocheck.ugent.be), a questionnaire assessing the implementation of biosecurity on veal farms was created.
T50 7869-8117 Sentence denotes In addition to questions about the implementation of biosecurity, questions about motivators or hurdles when implementing biosecurity measures were also asked, as well as general attitudes and knowledge regarding disease prevention and biosecurity.
T51 8118-8169 Sentence denotes A draft questionnaire was tested on two veal farms.
T52 8170-8329 Sentence denotes The final questionnaire consisted of 40 open-ended questions and a maximum of 114 multiple choice questions (Annex 2) and is available upon request by readers.
T53 8330-8440 Sentence denotes Part of the multiple choice questions, 57 in total, were arranged into 3 tables to facilitate data collection.
T54 8441-8602 Sentence denotes A random sample of 60 farms from all Belgian veal farms (241 farms in 2016) was obtained from the Flemish Animal Health Service (Diergezondheidszorg Vlaanderen).
T55 8603-8741 Sentence denotes A computer-generated random number (Excel®, Microsoft) was assigned to each of the 60 farms, and the numbers were sorted from low to high.
T56 8742-8902 Sentence denotes Selected farmers were contacted, starting with the farm assigned to number 1, and were asked to collaborate until 20 farmers willing to cooperate were selected.
T57 8903-9084 Sentence denotes The sample size was limited to 20 farms due to limited time and resources, as it was part of a research project to study and quantify biosecurity on different types of cattle farms.
T58 9085-9160 Sentence denotes A total of 28 farmers were contacted to obtain a sample from 20 veal farms.
T59 9161-9344 Sentence denotes Of the 8 farmers not willing to participate, 1 was no longer active, 3 cited a lack of time, 3 wished to receive no visitors to keep a closed farm, and 1 farmer did not give a reason.
T60 9345-9538 Sentence denotes The study farms were visited between November 2016 and February 2017, and face-to-face interviews were conducted by the first author in Dutch, the native tongue of both farmers and interviewer.
T61 9539-9606 Sentence denotes The visit consisted of a tour of the farm and the interview itself.
T62 9607-9662 Sentence denotes Participants were informed beforehand of the procedure.
T63 9663-9732 Sentence denotes Written informed consent was obtained from the participating farmers.
T64 9733-9862 Sentence denotes After the survey, all data was entered into a Limesurvey-form and exported to the statistical package IBM® SPSS® Statistics 25.0.
T65 9863-9922 Sentence denotes The results were analyzed using basic descriptive analysis.
T66 9923-10063 Sentence denotes The frequency of each answer and, when possible, the mean, median, standard deviation (SD), quartiles, minimum, and maximum were calculated.
T67 10064-10212 Sentence denotes A biosecurity scoring system was created with binary variables, where 1 indicated the presence of a biosecurity measure and 0 indicated the absence.
T68 10213-10518 Sentence denotes These scores were added up to generate a score on a scale of 0 to 10 for each biosecurity category, with a total of seven categories describing measures concerning animal movements, visitors, contact with other animals, disease management, compartmentation, cleaning and disinfection, and calf management.
T69 10519-10778 Sentence denotes Next, a categorical principal components analysis (CATPCA; SPSS 25.0) and clustering analysis, as previously described by Van Steenwinkel et al. (2011) and Sarrazin et al. (2014) , were performed to combine the information originating from multiple variables.
T70 10779-10888 Sentence denotes Based on this information, the researchers assessed whether the veal companies influenced biosecurity levels.
T71 10889-10980 Sentence denotes To this end, the categories were given an ordinal measurement scale in the CATPCA analysis.
T72 10981-11111 Sentence denotes The veal companies were included as a supplementary nominal measurement to explore their relationship with the biosecurity levels.
T73 11112-11258 Sentence denotes For the analysis, 3 major and a group of minor veal companies, as described in Pardon et al. (2014) , were randomly assigned a number from 1 to 4.
T74 11259-11645 Sentence denotes The object scores, following the CATPCA analysis, were included in a k-means cluster analysis (KMCA; SPSS 25.0) to compare the clusters to the veal companies. "2" means the measure was mentioned as such in literature for the disease, "1" means the relevance of the measure could be deduced from context, while "0" means that the risk factor was not found in literature for that disease.
T75 11646-11713 Sentence denotes The numbered references in the last column are provided in Annex 3.
T76 11714-11716 Sentence denotes B.
T77 11717-11733 Sentence denotes Damiaans, et al.
T78 11734-11920 Sentence denotes Preventive Veterinary Medicine 172 (2019) 104768 of 385 articles related to these diseases were reviewed to list all risk factors and biosecurity measures as input for the questionnaire.
T79 11921-11983 Sentence denotes The full list of biosecurity measures can be found in Annex 1.
T80 11984-12054 Sentence denotes One of the most frequently mentioned risk factors was animal movement.
T81 12055-12378 Sentence denotes Animal movement includes the purchase of animals and all associated biosecurity measures, such as ensuring that the farm of origin is free from infection, limiting the number of source farms, and collecting information on animal and farm of origin as well as testing the animals after purchase and quarantining new animals.
T82 12379-12565 Sentence denotes These measures were described as risk factors for multiple diseases and were considered important for the questionnaire, especially since the veal sector has its own system for purchase.
T83 12566-12636 Sentence denotes Another frequently mentioned group of measures is related to visitors.
T84 12637-12846 Sentence denotes The use of farm-specific clothing and footwear before entering the stables is often mentioned as well as the use of a disinfection footbath and hand-washing facilities before and between the animals' lodgings.
T85 12847-13039 Sentence denotes Measures concerning management of diseased animals, such as quick recognition, good assessment and correct treatment of disease, and elimination of disease carriers were also frequently cited.
T86 13040-13194 Sentence denotes Finally, all measures related to cleaning and disinfection of housing and equipment after each use were considered important, according to the literature.
T87 13195-13372 Sentence denotes The majority of the participating farms ( Fig. 1) were located in the province Antwerp (n = 13), which corresponds to the area with the highest density of veal farms in Belgium.
T88 13373-13477 Sentence denotes The other participants were located in West-Flanders (n = 4), Limburg (n = 2) and East-Flanders (n = 1).
T89 13478-13558 Sentence denotes The maximum number of calves present on the farm ranged from 212 to 1700 calves.
T90 13559-13610 Sentence denotes Other farm characteristics can be found in Annex 4.
T91 13611-13729 Sentence denotes Sixteen farms were part of three veal companies coordinating the highest number of Belgian veal farms (veal company 1:
T92 13730-13754 Sentence denotes 6 farms; veal company 2:
T93 13755-13779 Sentence denotes 6 farms; veal company 3:
T94 13780-13846 Sentence denotes 4 farms), and four farms belonged to three smaller veal companies.
T95 13847-13963 Sentence denotes Of 20 farmers, only 4 (20%) could give a partial definition of biosecurity, mainly focusing on external biosecurity.
T96 13964-14148 Sentence denotes Other farmers had no idea (n = 4), defined it vaguely as the reduction of antimicrobial usage (n = 6; 30%), improvement of food safety (n = 3; 15%), or organic production (n = 3; 15%).
T97 14149-14232 Sentence denotes After explaining the term, 19 farmers (95%) considered biosecurity to be important.
T98 14233-14304 Sentence denotes All of them considered disease prevention to be cheaper than treatment.
T99 14305-14549 Sentence denotes Only slightly more than half (11/20; 55%) of the farmers could list five or more biosecurity measures they implemented on their farm, and 19 participants (95%) considered the measures as implemented sufficiently to prevent disease transmission.
T100 14550-14669 Sentence denotes Seven farmers (35%) preferred that the veterinarian provide them with information on biosecurity or disease prevention.
T101 14670-14847 Sentence denotes Six farmers (30%) considered professional organizations, such as the animal healthcare association or the veal calf producers association, their preferred source of information.
T102 14848-14963 Sentence denotes Nine farmers (45%) did not consult any information sources because they believed no such information was available.
T103 14964-15021 Sentence denotes Two farmers (10%) mentioned the role of the veal company.
T104 15022-15127 Sentence denotes No farmers seemed to gain information from the internet or from magazines for agricultural professionals.
T105 15128-15228 Sentence denotes Inherent to the production system in the veal sector, all farms bought calves every 7.5 to 8 months.
T106 15229-15340 Sentence denotes There was a large difference in the time required to fill the stables for one cycle, ranging from 2 to 52 days.
T107 15341-15390 Sentence denotes On average, a stable was filled in 11.4 days (SD:
T108 15391-15396 Sentence denotes 9.6).
T109 15397-15496 Sentence denotes During the filling of the stable, all farms received animals on three fixed delivery days per week.
T110 15497-15626 Sentence denotes On three farms, the age difference between calves was larger than two weeks due to a large spread of calves entering the stables.
T111 15627-15790 Sentence denotes All calves were collected by cattle salesmen at the farm of origin, moved to a sorting center, and delivered by the veal company to the veal calf farms (Table 3) .
T112 15791-15963 Sentence denotes Six farmers indicated that they paid attention to sanitary status and health management, which refers to the presence of specific diseases on the farm of origin (Table 3) .
T113 15964-16076 Sentence denotes This procedure was based on previous experiences with the farm of origin, in consultation with the veal company.
T114 16077-16247 Sentence denotes The remaining participants argued that the veal company decides which calves are sent to them, and four farmers emphasized their trust in the company to cover this issue.
T115 16248-16329 Sentence denotes One farmer believed reviewing the health status of all new calves was unfeasible.
T116 16330-16472 Sentence denotes A shared opinion was that it is virtually impossible to check all farms of origin, since their number is almost equal to the number of calves.
T117 16473-16658 Sentence denotes This number is confirmed, since the average degree of commingling for the 20 farms was calculated to be 1.24 (SD = 0.16), meaning that, on average, 124 calves originated from 100 farms.
T118 16659-16743 Sentence denotes As such, a farm with 500 calves will harbor animals from over 400 different origins.
T119 16744-16865 Sentence denotes Upon arrival, calves were divided into high and low risk groups based on visual appraisals by 12 of the 20 farmers (60%).
T120 16866-16945 Sentence denotes On these farms, weaker calves were housed together and received more attention.
T121 16946-17079 Sentence denotes Half of the farmers (50%) felt that taking blood samples from all the animals to test for disease is neither feasible nor affordable.
T122 17080-17296 Sentence denotes Other reasons for not testing upon arrival included that there is no obligation to the government (n = 3; 15%) or to the veal company (n = 3; 15%), or that it would provide little additional information (n = 4; 20%).
T123 17297-17426 Sentence denotes As the stables are filled in a short period, the farmers mostly felt quarantine was neither feasible nor necessary (n = 19; 95%).
T124 17427-17640 Sentence denotes Before animals are transported to slaughter, transport vehicles are generally empty, cleaned and disinfected prior to picking up animals ready for slaughter, according to the majority of the farmers (n = 15; 75%).
T125 17641-17814 Sentence denotes However, upon delivery of animals to the farm, on 11 farms (55%), not all animals were unloaded, indicating that trucks were not empty and so were not cleaned between farms.
T126 17815-17958 Sentence denotes In 13 farms (65%), access to the stables was controlled by a closed gate and a requirement for visitors to announce themselves before entering.
T127 17959-18020 Sentence denotes The remaining 7 farmers (35%) believed this was not feasible.
T128 18021-18223 Sentence denotes The same farmers did not require visitors to register, either because it was not considered important (n = 3; 43%), regularly forgotten (n = 2; 29%), unknown (n = 1; 14%), or not mandatory (n = 1; 14%).
T129 18224-18425 Sentence denotes Measures regarding farm-specific clothing and boots were not well implemented by most visitors (Table 4) , despite farm-specific clothing and boots being available in a high number of farms (Table 5) .
T130 18426-18478 Sentence denotes Other measures for visitors were rarely implemented.
T131 18479-18566 Sentence denotes Disinfection footbaths were generally present but were either dirty, empty, or ignored.
T132 18567-18686 Sentence denotes Footbaths were not used by most farmers and staff, mainly because they believed it was not important on their own farm.
T133 18687-18778 Sentence denotes Very few participants always washed their hands or wore gloves before entering the stables.
T134 18779-18838 Sentence denotes Those not washing their hands assumed it was not important.
T135 18839-19042 Sentence denotes On the few farms where a hygiene lock (a room to change into farm-specific boots and clothing before a visitor can enter the stables) was present, it was consistently used by farm personnel and visitors.
T136 19043-19144 Sentence denotes For one-third of the farmers (n = 6; 35%) that did not have a hygiene lock, the practice was unknown.
T137 19145-19235 Sentence denotes A standard rodent control program usually consisted of the implementation of rodenticides.
T138 19236-19356 Sentence denotes Farmers without a rodent control program deemed it not important or only took measures when visibly infested (Table 3 ).
T139 19357-19508 Sentence denotes All farmers that implemented measures for insect control (n = 14; 70%) treated the environment, sometimes combined with additional measures (Table 3) .
T140 19509-19586 Sentence denotes These measures were mostly intended to control fly populations during summer.
T141 19587-19758 Sentence denotes The use of a well-equipped carcass storage space was often implemented (85%; n = 17), although few (25%; n = 5) regularly cleaned and disinfected the carcass storage area.
T142 19759-19916 Sentence denotes Removal of carcasses by the rendering company without entering the premises was considered very important, although this was only possible on 11 farms (55%).
T143 19917-20148 Sentence denotes More than half of the farmers (n = 13; 65%) believed vaccination was not important or too expensive because of the short duration of a production cycle and because most vaccines can only be administered at a certain age (Table 5 ).
T144 20149-20312 Sentence denotes According to these farmers, most disease outbreaks are observed during the first weeks after introduction, a moment when vaccines are considered not yet effective.
T145 20313-20436 Sentence denotes Some farmers also mentioned that since the veal companies own the calves, the companies should decide whether to vaccinate.
T146 20437-20537 Sentence denotes Measures for ectoparasites consisted of preventive treatments, mainly to avoid outbreaks of scabies.
T147 20538-20608 Sentence denotes Specific treatment for endoparasites was administered only curatively.
T148 20609-20838 Sentence denotes Seven of twenty (35%) farmers thought it was not feasible to isolate sick animals and five (25%) farmers applied partial isolation, where the animals were not separated from the other animals (direct contact possible) (Table 5) .
T149 20839-21071 Sentence denotes Although a hospital pen was present on seven farms (35%), only three farmers (43%) indicated that they sometimes isolated sick animals when they were lame or unable to function in the group (e.g., unable to eat, drink, or stand up).
T150 21072-21235 Sentence denotes Only two out of seven hospital pens were cleaned, disinfected and dried before new animals entered, and an "all-in, all-out" system was used in four hospital pens.
T151 21236-21334 Sentence denotes Only one farmer implemented all these measures and had a fully, physically separated hospital pen.
T152 21335-21508 Sentence denotes The farmers that did not take these measures declared them infeasible because their hospital pen was located inside the regular stables, making thorough cleaning unfeasible.
T153 21509-21644 Sentence denotes For five participants (25%), elimination or segregation of a carrier of infection depended on the age or clinical status of the animal.
T154 21645-21730 Sentence denotes An older animal would often go to slaughter while younger animals would be separated.
T155 21731-21865 Sentence denotes On the nine farms with multiple age groups, eight farmers performed work from old to young, contrary to established wisdom (Table 5) .
T156 21866-22021 Sentence denotes On 16 farms (80%), equipment, such as wheelbarrows and feeding utensils, were moved between compartments (same age group) without cleaning or disinfection.
T157 22022-22175 Sentence denotes None of the farms used compartmentspecific measures, such as changing clothes and footwear or washing hands between different compartments or age groups.
T158 22176-22342 Sentence denotes Within the compartment, calves were sorted by drinking speed for economic reasons, since the difference between the animals would impair the growth of slower animals.
T159 22343-22424 Sentence denotes Between compartments, animals were only moved to segregate carriers of infection.
T160 22425-22535 Sentence denotes Only one farm (5%) could not prevent direct contact with another age group due to the structure of the stable.
T161 22536-22747 Sentence denotes In two farms, the "all-in, all-out" system was not always well applied, i.e., young calves entered the stables while (some) older animals were still present, resulting in possible contact between the age groups.
T162 22748-22832 Sentence denotes The calf stables were empty after each production cycle on the other 17 farms (85%).
T163 22833-23024 Sentence denotes The duration of the sanitary vacancy, often also referred to as downtime, a period between production cycles where the stable is not used, was on average 9.8 days (SD = 4.1; range 3-15 days).
T164 23025-23136 Sentence denotes All farmers who always applied a sanitary vacancy (n = 17; 85%), also cleaned their stables during the vacancy.
T165 23137-23194 Sentence denotes However, only 11 out of 17 farmers also disinfected them.
T166 23195-23253 Sentence denotes Pipelines used for milk were cleaned once or twice a week.
T167 23254-23418 Sentence denotes Water and feed troughs were rinsed with water on a daily (n = 5; 25%), weekly (n = 4; 20%), or monthly (n = 1; 5%) basis, or once per production cycle (n = 8; 40%).
T168 23419-23468 Sentence denotes Two farmers (10%) never cleaned the feed troughs.
T169 23469-23525 Sentence denotes All farmers used reusable needles to inject the animals.
T170 23526-23642 Sentence denotes In general, calves were housed in individual boxes with both visual and physical contact during the first six weeks.
T171 23643-23708 Sentence denotes Calves were then sorted by drinking speed within the compartment.
T172 23709-23786 Sentence denotes Poorly growing calves were isolated in one compartment with a different diet.
T173 23787-23977 Sentence denotes As one compartment only contained animals of the same age group, air flow within the compartment was considered irrelevant concerning disease spread from younger to older animals (Table 5) .
T174 23978-24034 Sentence denotes Table 3 Implementation of external biosecurity measures.
T175 24035-24237 Sentence denotes Column one contains the biosecurity measure, the second column contains the maximum number of farms that can adhere to the measure, while the third to fifth columns contain the adherence to the measure.
T176 24239-24376 Sentence denotes The two-dimensional solution of the CATPCA explained 69.7% of the variance of the seven biosecurity categories in the 20 herds (Fig. 2) .
T177 24377-24476 Sentence denotes The percentage accounted for was 41.7% for the first dimension, and 28.0% for the second dimension.
T178 24477-24692 Sentence denotes The vectorial component loadings represent the contributions of each category to the dimensions, while the different categories of the nominal variable "veal companies" are represented by their centroid coordinates.
T179 24693-24750 Sentence denotes The vectors appear in the upper and lower right quadrant.
T180 24751-24926 Sentence denotes The projection of the vector for contact with other animals has the largest contribution to the first dimension (x-axis), followed by the vector for cleaning and disinfection.
T181 24927-25072 Sentence denotes The vector for compartmentation, which has the lowest contribution for dimension 1, has the largest contribution to the second dimension (yaxis).
T182 25073-25208 Sentence denotes Veal companies 3 and 4, whose centroids are located in the directions of the vectors, have, on average, the highest biosecurity scores.
T183 25209-25407 Sentence denotes For veal company 3, this result is mainly related to a higher score for compartmentation and measures for visitors, while these farms score lower on disease management and cleaning and disinfection.
T184 25408-25461 Sentence denotes In the farms of veal company 4, the opposite applies.
T185 25462-25536 Sentence denotes On average, the farms of veal company 2 have the lowest biosecurity score.
T186 25537-25652 Sentence denotes However, the overall differences in biosecurity between veal companies are limited (centroids close to the center).
T187 25653-25712 Sentence denotes Based on the KMCA, four clusters were identified (Fig. 2) .
T188 25713-25816 Sentence denotes The first cluster contains the highest number of farms (13) that scored lowest for biosecurity overall.
T189 25817-25862 Sentence denotes Clusters 2 and 3 scored high for biosecurity.
T190 25863-26039 Sentence denotes The farms in cluster 2 scored, on average, higher for disease management and cleaning and disinfection, while farms in cluster 3 score higher for compartmentation and visitors.
T191 26040-26165 Sentence denotes Though this seems similar to the results of veal companies 3 and 4, the clusters consist of farms of multiple veal companies.
T192 26166-26232 Sentence denotes Overall no clear veal company effect was observed in the clusters.
T193 26233-26346 Sentence denotes To our knowledge, this paper is the first to describe biosecurity on farms with an intensive veal-rearing system.
T194 26347-26558 Sentence denotes Because of the strong integration and industrialization in the veal sector, it could be theorized that the implementation of biosecurity on veal farms would differ from that of conventional dairy and beef farms.
T195 26559-26746 Sentence denotes This study was designed to describe the biosecurity level on veal farms as the first step of a larger research project to develop a risk-based biosecurity scoring system for cattle farms.
T196 26747-27031 Sentence denotes Though no comparison was made with conventional farms, based on the results of this study, a difference in biosecurity level can be expected due to differences in the purchase policy, contact with other animals, compartmentation and cleaning and disinfection (Renault et al., 2018a) .
T197 27032-27217 Sentence denotes The random sample of 20 veal farms in this study may be considered small, yet it represented about 8.3% of all Belgian veal farms since the sector consists of a limited number of farms.
T198 27218-27311 Sentence denotes The selected farms were distributed among veal companies corresponding to their market share.
T199 27312-27498 Sentence denotes Furthermore, the size of the selected farms was representative (average veal farms house 200-1200 veal calves) for the population, and different veterinary practices advised the farmers.
T200 27499-27592 Sentence denotes Therefore, the selected farms were considered to be representative of the veal calf industry.
T201 27593-27727 Sentence denotes To a certain extent, selection bias cannot be excluded, due to the possibility that better farms might be more willing to participate.
T202 27728-28007 Sentence denotes The face-to-face interviews, in combination with a herd visit, allowed the investigator to observe the majority of the practices and measures, which limited the amount of interview bias due to the socially desired response rather than the true situation (Sarrazin et al., 2014) .
T203 28008-28126 Sentence denotes However, only a single visit to the farm was made, so the actual compliance for some measures could not be determined.
T204 28127-28228 Sentence denotes Because the herd visits were performed by a single interviewer, investigator variability was avoided.
T205 28229-28359 Sentence denotes Therefore, it is believed that the presented results provide an accurate image of the biosecurity situation on Belgian veal farms.
T206 28360-28615 Sentence denotes Most of the veal farmers considered biosecurity important, though they were not familiar with the term itself and most were not able to list five biosecurity measures, thus indicating that the perceived importance is only sparsely translated into actions.
T207 28616-28726 Sentence denotes Furthermore, a number of the farmers considered several measures to be unimportant or impossible to implement.
T208 28727-28918 Sentence denotes This finding confirms previous observations that there is a substantial lack of information on how to improve farm management and how to implement these improvements (Damiaans et al., 2018) .
T209 28919-28970 Sentence denotes The finding also shows that the results of Fig. 2 .
T210 28971-29294 Sentence denotes Triplot of component loadings (the position of the original variables in the two-dimensional space, represented by vectors), multiple nominal category points (veal companies) and objects (individual farms) labeled by the clusters, resulting from the categorical principal component analysis and K-means clustering analysis.
T211 29295-29439 Sentence denotes The vector of a variable points in the direction of the highest category of the variable, indicating in this case a higher level in biosecurity.
T212 29440-29566 Sentence denotes The veal companies are located close to the center of the plot, meaning no distinction can be made between the veal companies.
T213 29567-29641 Sentence denotes The first and second dimension distinguish between the different clusters.
T214 29642-29727 Sentence denotes The green circles with number 1-4 represent the individual farms part of cluster 1-4.
T215 29728-29852 Sentence denotes The first cluster has on average the lowest biosecurity, while the second and third cluster tend to have the highest scores.
T216 29853-30209 Sentence denotes The fourth cluster is located in the center. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) previous studies that suggested measures like risk classification, limitation of the arrival period, and the farms of origin have not been translated into practice (Pardon, 2012) .
T217 30210-30369 Sentence denotes Contrary to, e.g., mortality and antibiotic use on veal farms, biosecurity seems affected by the veal company only in a limited capacity (Bokma et al., 2019) .
T218 30370-30532 Sentence denotes Though biosecurity improvements are partly within the power of the farmers, this limited impact may show the veal companies' lack of policy regarding biosecurity.
T219 30533-30679 Sentence denotes Some characteristics inherent to veal production, as it is currently organized, largely hamper the implementation of several biosecurity measures.
T220 30680-30743 Sentence denotes The most important issue is the huge number of farms of origin.
T221 30744-30969 Sentence denotes As the purchase of animals is often described as one of the most important risks in disease introduction (Cuttance and Cuttance, 2014; Sarrazin et al., 2017) , this procedure is a significant disadvantage for the veal sector.
T222 30970-31159 Sentence denotes This disadvantage is even aggravated by the induction of stress through the transport and commingling of the calves, resulting in increased susceptibility to new infections (Stokka, 2010) .
T223 31160-31261 Sentence denotes Solving this calf-sourcing risk will require fundamental changes in the organization of the industry.
T224 31262-31417 Sentence denotes A first step toward limiting the farms of origin could be grouping births in larger dairy farms to increase the number of calves originating from one farm.
T225 31418-31518 Sentence denotes Regardless of this fundamental challenge, other measures regarding animal introduction can be taken.
T226 31519-31665 Sentence denotes For instance, animals with the same disease status could be grouped in the same stable to limit contamination of other calves and the environment.
T227 31666-31831 Sentence denotes This measure requires more upstream information on the sanitary status of the herds of origin and additional testing, measures that are currently poorly implemented.
T228 31832-32250 Sentence denotes The national eradication programs for infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) and bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), currently implemented in Belgium (Royal Decree KB2017-09-18/09, 2017KB-09-18/09, Royal Decree, 2017Royal Decree KB2017-09-18/09, 2017 Royal Decree KB2018-04-27/03, 2018KB-04-27/03, Royal Decree, 2018Royal Decree KB2018-04-27/03, 2018 are expected to decrease the infection pressure caused by these diseases.
T229 32251-32411 Sentence denotes This decrease is especially important for BVD, as it has been described as one of the major contributors to disease in veal calf-rearing (Pardon et al., 2011) .
T230 32412-32641 Sentence denotes Furthermore, in collaboration with the veal companies, previous experiences with farms of origin could serve as a valuable source of information, provided that this information is recorded and shared (Hobbs, 2004; Pardon, 2012) .
T231 32642-32777 Sentence denotes This type of information could improve the risk classification of animals, which is currently performed only through visual inspection.
T232 32778-32913 Sentence denotes As shown by van Schaik et al. (1998) and Brennan et al. (2008) , a higher number of visitors is a risk factor for disease introduction.
T233 32914-33043 Sentence denotes In veal farms, only two types of visitors visit the farm frequently: the veterinarian and the representative of the veal company.
T234 33044-33198 Sentence denotes Conventional farms often have more types of visitors, such as salesmen, feed suppliers, hoof trimmers and drivers of milk trucks (Renault et al., 2018a) .
T235 33199-33306 Sentence denotes Nevertheless, the frequency with which some visitors enter influences the risk for introduction of disease.
T236 33307-33445 Sentence denotes Although only a limited number of visitors enter the farm, the precautionary measures they take upon entrance are insufficient (Table 4 ).
T237 33446-33648 Sentence denotes As these professional visitors are, by definition, high-risk visitors since they have frequent contact with animals from different farms, the risk of spreading infection through this route remains high.
T238 33649-33862 Sentence denotes The implementation of a minimum of preventive measures, such as wearing herd-specific clothing and footwear, by professional visitors is a relatively easy and cheap measure that can be implemented on short notice.
T239 33863-34029 Sentence denotes Very few farmers considered themselves or their staff as a risk when entering their own farm, forgetting that they may also transmit disease (Sarrazin et al., 2017) .
T240 34030-34121 Sentence denotes This shows that they do not fully understand disease transmission and the risks associated.
T241 34122-34206 Sentence denotes This lack of knowledge might reflect in the execution of other biosecurity measures.
T242 34207-34378 Sentence denotes Sick animals are rarely physically isolated, even though keeping sick animals in a group has been described as detrimental to the health of other animals (Edwards, 2010) .
T243 34379-34492 Sentence denotes Furthermore, during the first weeks of the rearing period, farmers believe the calves are sufficiently separated.
T244 34493-34681 Sentence denotes This lack of isolation is likely linked to the observation that during these first weeks, disease outbreaks usually cannot be limited to one or a few animals in the current rearing system.
T245 34682-34889 Sentence denotes Moreover, most farmers did not consider investing in a hospital pen, even though the benefit in limiting disease transmission by separating the source of infection has been shown repeatedly (Edwards, 2010) .
T246 34890-35080 Sentence denotes Since the most crucial period for disease prevention is during the first few weeks of the rearing period, farmers consider a number of preventive practices, such as vaccination, unnecessary.
T247 35081-35186 Sentence denotes However, Lava et al. (2016) concluded that farms where calves were vaccinated had a lower mortality rate.
T248 35187-35389 Sentence denotes Lava and colleagues also remarked that an ideal vaccination scheme should start at the farm of origin, thus reiterating the importance of information exchange between the origin farms and the veal farm.
T249 35390-35584 Sentence denotes Admittedly, the calves in the study by Lava et al. (2016) were, on average, one month old upon purchase while, in Belgium, calves are sold at the age of two to four weeks (Pardon et al., 2015) .
T250 35585-35702 Sentence denotes Besides vaccination, maternal immunity is of the utmost importance for the calf's immunity (Delafosse et al., 2015) .
T251 35703-35884 Sentence denotes Measuring serum IgG concentrations of all calves upon arrival, as described by Weaver et al. (2000) , could be a measure to ensure the adequate function of the herd's immune system.
T252 35885-35999 Sentence denotes Furthermore, a higher serum IgG concentration decreased the risk of mortality, according to Renaud et al. (2018) .
T253 36000-36105 Sentence denotes A concentration of less than 7.5 g/L IgG was shown to decrease average daily gain (Pardon et al., 2015) .
T254 36106-36250 Sentence denotes Moreover, measuring the blood serum values would likely stimulate the farmers of the origin herds to ensure sufficient colostrum administration.
T255 36251-36533 Sentence denotes Nonetheless, taking blood samples upon arrival is considered infeasible by the majority of the farmers, even though blood samples to check for iron deficiency are taken regularly, and the value of this measure has been described (Maunsell and Donovan, 2009; Maunsell et al., 2011) .
T256 36534-36674 Sentence denotes Most farmers considered it better not to follow conventional working lines from youngest to oldest, as described by Sarrazin et al. (2014) .
T257 36675-36852 Sentence denotes These farmers prefer to start with the oldest animals, reasoning that a younger group carries and spreads more pathogens from their farm of origin, having only recently arrived.
T258 36853-37152 Sentence denotes However, the farmers seem to ignore that the older animals have a higher immune status and can be carriers of quickly spreading, high impact diseases, such as Mycoplasma bovis and Salmonella spp. (Radaelli et al., 2008; Pardon et al., 2011) , and therefore can spread disease to the younger animals.
T259 37153-37317 Sentence denotes By handling the youngest animals first and the sick and quarantined animals last, farmers can reduce the spread of disease within the farm (Sarrazin et al., 2013) .
T260 37318-37584 Sentence denotes Due to the organization of the veal industry, the application of an "all-in, all-out" system as well as clear compartmentation, which has been described as an adequate biosecurity measure (Maunsell and Donovan, 2009; Maunsell et al., 2011) , is easily implementable.
T261 37585-37799 Sentence denotes Besides the advantages of keeping young, susceptible calves separated from the older cohorts (Sarrazin et al., 2014) , each compartment can be cleaned, disinfected, and thoroughly dried during the sanitary vacancy.
T262 37800-38031 Sentence denotes A clean and disinfected environment is recommended in the literature for multiple diseases, such as Cryptosporidium parvum, Salmonella spp., and BVD (Daugschies and Najdrowski, 2005; Fossler et al., 2005; Villarroel et al., 2007) .
T263 38032-38214 Sentence denotes Next to the frequency of cleaning and disinfection, a welldesigned and adhered-to protocol, including the seven steps described in Van Immerseel et al. (2018) , is equally important.
T264 38215-38396 Sentence denotes These seven steps consist of removal of all organic material, soaking all surfaces, high pressure cleaning, drying, disinfection, drying and testing the efficiency of the procedure.
T265 38397-38524 Sentence denotes If the stables are not cleaned and disinfected properly, pathogens can survive even after a sufficiently long sanitary vacancy.
T266 38525-38722 Sentence denotes Research suggests that the length of the sanitary vacancy, which in this study was, on average, ten days, is not as important as a proper cleaning and disinfection procedure (Luyckx et al., 2016) .
T267 38723-38917 Sentence denotes The farmers indicated that they thoroughly cleaned and disinfected their stables more often during recent years due to the distribution of cleaning and disinfection products by the veal company.
T268 38918-39059 Sentence denotes This example illustrates that the veal company could play a crucial role in the motivation toward the implementation of biosecurity measures.
T269 39060-39189 Sentence denotes It also illustrates that the farmers are not the sole decision makers and can be influenced regarding their biosecurity policies.
T270 39190-39383 Sentence denotes Possibly, this understanding explains why several farmers answered that they were not obliged by government or veal company to apply certain measures, but were waiting for guidelines to follow.
T271 39384-39508 Sentence denotes In the CATPCA analysis, no clear distinction between the levels of biosecurity in the different veal companies was observed.
T272 39509-39636 Sentence denotes However, these results do not signify that the veal companies cannot guide and motivate their farmers in improving biosecurity.
T273 39637-39776 Sentence denotes Instead, the analysis suggests that, at this moment, they do not take the opportunity to address biosecurity, leaving room for improvement.
T274 39777-39949 Sentence denotes Most farmers in this study were willing to invest money and time to solve shortcomings on their farm, which is in agreement with previous findings (Damiaans et al., 2018) .
T275 39950-40064 Sentence denotes However, farmers are often hindered by their beliefs that many biosecurity measures are not feasible or important.
T276 40065-40242 Sentence denotes Farmers often feel they lack information on both the efficacy and feasibility of disease prevention through biosecurity measures (Sarrazin et al., 2014; Damiaans et al., 2018) ,
T277 40243-40372 Sentence denotes The data from this study provides a first indication of the biosecurity level of veal farms, starting with the Belgian situation.
T278 40373-40640 Sentence denotes Given the fact that the industry is organized in a comparable manner to most European veal-producing countries, often with the same veal companies working in different countries, it can be hypothesized that the obtained results are comparable to production in Europe.
T279 40641-40802 Sentence denotes This study provides insights on current biosecurity measures in veal herds and identifies potential priority areas for short, middle, and long term improvements.
T280 40803-41067 Sentence denotes Several biosecurity measures of high importance, such as "all-in, all-out" and compartmentation, are implemented relatively well whereas other measures, such as cleaning and disinfection, isolation of sick animals, and measures for visitors can easily be improved.
T281 41068-41298 Sentence denotes The improvement of some measures regarding the introduction of animals from a huge number of different origins with variable infectious and immunity status will require more fundamental changes in the organization of the industry.
T282 41299-41429 Sentence denotes In the implementation of these improvements, the collaboration between farmers, veal companies, and veterinarians will be crucial.
T283 41430-41562 Sentence denotes This study was supported by the Belgian Federal Public Service for Health, Food Safety and Environment (Contract RT 15/4 BOBIOSEC1).
T284 41563-41607 Sentence denotes The funding source had no other involvement.
T285 41608-41656 Sentence denotes All research data are available with the author.
T286 41657-41941 Sentence denotes The lead author affirms that this manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study being reported; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned (and, if relevant, registered) have been explained.
T287 41942-41947 Sentence denotes None.