Knowra Biosecurity Biosecurity Biosecurity comprises practices that prevent infectious agents from entering, spreading within, or leaving a population or facility. Measures range from farm hygiene and quarantine to controls on handling dangerous pathogens.
Infection control : Policies and practices that reduce the transmission of infectious agents in healthcare and other settings. Biosecurity applies infection-control measures to prevent agents entering or spreading within protected settings.
Farm biosecurity : Farm practices that prevent infectious agents from entering, spreading among, or leaving livestock and poultry operations. Farm biosecurity adapts exclusion, hygiene, and movement controls to animal production.
Biosafety : Practices and containment measures that prevent accidental exposure to biological agents or their unintended release. Biosafety focuses on accidents; biosecurity also addresses deliberate access, theft, and release.
Emerging infectious disease : An infectious disease that has newly appeared in a population or is rapidly increasing in incidence or range. Weak barriers and delayed detection can allow emerging infections to establish and spread.
Gain-of-function research : Research that alters an organism to produce or study new or enhanced biological functions. Some experiments raise disputes about whether scientific benefits justify added biosecurity risks.
Quarantine : Separation or restriction of movement for people or animals exposed to a contagious disease during its incubation period. Quarantine limits movement while infection may remain undetected.
Hospital infection prevention : Measures used in healthcare facilities to prevent infections among patients, staff, and visitors. Hospitals use biosecurity principles to contain pathogens in high-risk clinical environments.
Biological warfare : The use of disease-causing organisms or toxins as weapons to harm people, animals, or crops. Biological warfare is a threat biosecurity seeks to prevent, not a protective practice.
Zoonosis : An infectious disease that can pass naturally between vertebrate animals and humans. Biosecurity at animal–human interfaces can reduce opportunities for zoonotic transmission.
Biological risk management : The systematic identification, assessment, and reduction of risks from biological materials, research, and activities. Risk management provides frameworks for deciding which controls match particular threats.
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