Can we talk biosecurity?

[frogvet]

I am starting to implement and execute various biosecurity measures for continued health of my animals. The main thing I keep turning over in my head is biosecurity between my current snakes that are outwardly healthy and not in quarantine. They are kept on paper towels and I either spot clean with F10 or clean the entire cage after they void the most recent meal. My real question is do I have to be cautious that my animals do not come in contact with the same surfaces? Should i clean the scale bin after every animal every time? Can they share the same temporary bin (not simultaneously) when I'm cleaning or otherwise need them out of their primary cages? I wash my hands before and after handling each animal but should I avoid prolonged handling of one if the other has just been out? This sort of stuff...... I only have a pair right now but I want to form good habits and have a plan in place for when more inevitably arrive! Any other tidbits y'all think are important? Any nightmare stories that we could learn from?

[dr del]

Hi,

I use a completely different set of equipment for the quarantine animals.

[frogvet]

So you are not concerned about sharing equipment in NON-quarantined animals?

[dr del]

No,

Once I am satisfied they have no nasties in their system I see no problem. Though if any of them become ill etc they will be qt'd until I am sure there is no risk of cross infection. It's all down to how you quantify the risks - when you know there will shortly be interaction such as breeding then you simply reassess the animals beforehand.

I don't add many animals to my collection on the whole so rarely encounter the scenario of multiple animals in qt from different sources and times. For those situations the qt time resets for all animals when a new one is added.