As cows and sheep, goats and pigs - especially pigs - arrive at the Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair, their health will be inspected and paperwork with their veterinarian's stamp of approval will be collected.
Ensuring animals are healthy before they are granted access inside the Carroll County Agriculture Center in Westminster is a crucial safety component of the fair, state and local officials said. It's one that the Carroll animal committees - there's one for each - train for year-round. During the event, they're on high alert for sick animals, particularly pigs, as swine flu made its way to a fair in Queen Anne's County last year.
While there hasn't ever been a case of swine flu in a pig at Carroll's fair, proper precautions are followed to ensure that all animals at the fair, which runs until Aug. 2, are healthy ones. And that no sick pigs with the flu are allowed into the fair, according to Andy Cashman, the fair's livestock superintendent.
"It hasn't really happened here yet," he said, "but we're trying to be ready and prepared to handle it, and take care of the fair if it does happen. And I think we're in good shape."
Last year, Maryland saw a total of 12 cases of swine influenza in people - which consists of symptoms similar to the seasonal flu - from exposure at the Queen Anne's County Fair, according to the September 2012 Maryland One Health Bulletin, a joint effort of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Department of Natural Resources and MDA.
None of the infected required hospitalization, and DHMH determined that 13 pigs in Maryland had swine flu. This prompted the Maryland Department of Agriculture to create a standard operating procedure for dealing with influenza in the middle of the 2012 fair season, according to Emily Gowin, an MDA animal health inspector.
This included getting in touch with all fair swine superintendents, asking the fair what assistance they needed and - when on high alert - taking the temperature of suspect pigs entering the fair, according to Gowin.
It was based on a report on minimizing influenza transmissions at swine exhibits written by the National Assembly of State Animal Health Officials and the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians.
The two national agencies released a similar report in March 2013, estimating that about 150 million people visit agricultural fairs nationwide.
The first case of swine flu in a human likely from contact with pigs at a fair this year cropped up in Indiana, which has since seen 12 additional cases. There's been another in Ohio, making the total reported cases 14 as of Friday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There's a state-mandated procedure each fair in Maryland follows, according to Gowin.
A veterinarian must inspect each animal within 30 days prior to the fair and sign a certificate of veterinary inspection.
And right before the animals are transported to the fair, their owner signs a self-certificate of animal health found on the Maryland Department of Agriculture's website. Basically, this indicates that the animal appeared healthy prior to arrival.
Once they've arrived at the Carroll fairgrounds, the paperwork will be collected. Then, the animals will be inspected, according to Cashman.
"[They'll] make sure that they're healthy," Cashman said, "and it's safe for them, and it's also safe for the exhibitors."
On their radar screen will be checking for a runny nose, fever, drowsiness and more.
"We don't want sick animals at the fair, no matter if it's a mild sickness or pretty serious," Gowin said.
State veterinarians, MDA animal health inspectors and animal committee members will also perform periodic walk-throughs of the animal areas to make sure they look healthy. They particularly home in on the pigs, just in case swine flu begins to crop up in Maryland.
"They get the flu just like people do," Cashman said. "It's one of those things we're really trying to keep our eye on."
And as those in charge of animal health do their jobs, signs sprinkled throughout the fairgrounds ask participants to do something for their own safety. And that's to wash their hands after coming in contact with animals.
"People just need to do what they do at home: Practice good health and hygiene," Cashman said, "and wash their hands."
