Informal livestock “swaps” or trade meetups to exchange animals are legal in Maine, and can sometimes be an accessible option for farmers with unwanted animals and limited resources.
But the exchanges can bring a higher risk for spreading disease among animals and people, according to assistant state veterinarian Taryn Pearson.
To minimize that risk, Maine’s animal health department is encouraging swap participants to have biosecurity plans, look for signs of disease in animals onsite, keep good records and use animal identification numbers, Pearson said.
Those steps are required at traditional auctions and livestock dealers, which are licensed by the state. Agricultural fairs are another place where animals from different places mix, and they have entry checklists to screen for illness. Diseases found in Maine among livestock include respiratory issues, skin lesions, abscesses, salmonella and others, some of which can spread to humans.
“Quite a number” of animals are now likely changing hands at swaps in Maine, Pearson said, but the state doesn’t have exact totals. The department has also received recent reports of disease that “may or may not” have involved movement from swaps, she said.
The private events aren’t centrally tracked, and neither are sales from them.
People also commonly sell and trade livestock online, though it’s against the terms of service for Facebook.
One upside to online sales is that potential buyers can ask questions about the genetics, history and health of animals before they buy, which fast-paced auctions don’t always allow, said Rachel White, a livestock educator at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
She’s seen sales happening online for a long time, and has gotten more requests for help homing animals since the state’s last weekly animal auction ended operations last fall. Combined with limited availability at slaughterhouses and a high demand at animal rescues, people with livestock they can’t care for can feel stuck and turn to the internet.
Melissa Andrews, director of development, humane education and outreach for the Peace Ridge Sanctuary in Brooks, said the livestock shelter is asked to take thousands of animals annually, a number that usually increases each year.
Many of the 600-plus animals in its system came from poor living conditions after people purchased them from sales and were unprepared to provide for their basic needs, according to Andrews. They’ve seen increasing numbers since the pandemic homesteading boom.
If an animal owner turns to a swap instead at someone’s farm, animals and people can be at higher risk of getting sick without safeguards in place.
The state requests the diseases that could seriously disrupt business if they got a foothold in the state be reported so the animal health department can track them.
That reporting is voluntary, but common cases this year are strangles, a respiratory illness of horses and mules roughly equivalent to strep throat, and sore mouth disease caused by the orf virus, which causes sores and lesions on animals that can spread to people.
Certain diseases also survive outside for weeks or years, making it difficult to continue raising animals on a farm where they get established, which Pearson said has happened to at least one Maine farm hosting a swap.
For example, the bacteria that cause a sheep and goat disease called Caseous Lymphadenitis can live in soil and wood for years. The disease causes abscesses on the animal’s lymph nodes or organs. Humans can catch it too, along with other diseases such as pinkeye.
Johne’s disease, another one that can linger outside — and is often fatal — has been reported in Maine recently. Other recent cases include the poultry disease Salmonella; fowl pox, a viral poultry disease; and infectious laryngotracheitis, a very infectious respiratory disease found in chickens.
Many other diseases are common in Maine but not reportable, Pearson said, and are handled by private vets instead.
If owners keep records of animal movement, it is easier and faster for the state to discover how a disease may have spread and the farms it could have come in contact with. Pearson said people can be suspicious of the idea of recordkeeping, fearing the state will store information or use it nefariously.
It’s only used for tracing disease, and using animal identification numbers can help buyers, too, she said. These ID numbers help track whether animals may have been sold illegally from “terminal markets,” where animals too sick to be part of herds are sent to be culled, or other risky origins.
The state veterinarians said they encourage people participating in livestock swaps to have a biosecurity plan, or steps to take like sanitation that can reduce the risk of disease spread. Learn how to recognize signs of disease (printing the check-in guidelines from agricultural fairs are one option).
Even if a new animal looks healthy, it could be carrying disease, so Pearson recommends quarantining it before introducing it to your herd.
