Livestock Biosecurity Requirements in Indiana: What Every Producer Needs to Know

Indiana ranks among the top agricultural states in the Midwest, with livestock and poultry operations forming a critical pillar of the state’s rural economy. A single disease outbreak — whether foot-and-mouth, highly pathogenic avian influenza, or African swine fever — can shut down interstate commerce, trigger mandatory depopulations, and cost producers millions of dollars in a matter of days.

Understanding and following Indiana’s livestock biosecurity requirements is not just good farm management — it is a legal obligation enforced by the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) under Indiana Code Title 15. This guide walks you through every major compliance area, from premises registration and animal identification to dead animal disposal, so you can protect your herd, your neighbors, and your operation.

What Is Livestock Biosecurity and Why It Matters in Indiana

Livestock biosecurity refers to the set of practices, protocols, and legal requirements designed to prevent the introduction and spread of infectious or contagious diseases among animal populations. In Indiana, biosecurity is not optional — it is embedded directly into state law and administrative code.

A highly contagious animal disease event in Indiana may have economically devastating ramifications as well as public health or food safety and security consequences. The state’s agricultural sector depends on open interstate trade, and a disease outbreak can sever those trading relationships instantly.

A foreign animal disease (FAD), or exotic animal disease, is a disease that is not currently found in the United States. The FADs of greatest concern could cause significant illness or death in animals or cause extensive economic harm by eliminating trading opportunities with other countries and states.

The Indiana State Board of Animal Health serves as the primary regulatory authority. Preparing includes working closely with the livestock and poultry industries to raise awareness, practice sound biosecurity to prevent entry and spread, and adopt plans to respond at the farm level. As a livestock producer in Indiana, your biosecurity obligations touch nearly every aspect of daily farm operations — from who enters your property to how you dispose of a carcass.

Indiana agriculture also benefits from the Certified Livestock Producers program, which requires livestock producers to demonstrate their commitment to the environment, animal well-being, food safety, emergency planning, and biosecurity. Certified Livestock Producers complete self-assessments and are recognized by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) for their compliance efforts. Participation is voluntary but carries tangible benefits including insurance discounts and community recognition. You can also review how livestock disease reporting in Florida compares as a reference point for understanding multi-state compliance frameworks.

Premises Registration and Identification Requirements in Indiana

One of the foundational requirements for Indiana livestock producers is premises registration. Without a valid Premises Identification Number (PremID), you cannot legally order official animal ID tags, and your operation may face compliance issues during any disease investigation or animal movement audit.

BOAH requires premises registration of all sites associated with the sale, purchase, and/or exhibition of the following species: cattle, swine, sheep, goats, and cervids. Equine and poultry sites may be registered on a voluntary basis.

A unique premises identification number is required for each non-contiguous location associated with the sale, purchase, and/or exhibition of cattle, bison, swine, sheep, goats, and cervids. Sites under the same management but separated by no more than a county road may be considered contiguous.

Registration is handled directly through BOAH. A person requesting a premises identification number shall register the premises with the board and provide complete and accurate information requested by the state veterinarian as a part of the registration process. A person registering a premises under this section shall notify the state veterinarian of changes to the information provided for the registration within thirty (30) days of the change.

Official Animal Identification

Beyond premises registration, individual animal identification is a parallel requirement. In general, livestock species need to be individually identified before entering the state of Indiana. Specific requirements, including types of official ID and when ID must be applied, will vary by species.

For cattle and bison specifically, BOAH recognizes three forms of identification as official for cattle and bison. All are approved by USDA for interstate movements of livestock. All ear tags for cattle and bison must be visually and electronically readable, whether bangle, button, or clip-style, beginning November 5, 2024.

Beginning November 5, 2024, under new federal requirements, Indiana allows the use of USDA-approved electronic (EID) tags that can be read both visually and electronically. Some producers may choose to use tattoos; however, Indiana does not recognize them as official ID since 2015.

Your PremID is directly tied to your tags. A premises ID number issued by BOAH is required to order official ID tags. The PremID is necessary to link the tags to a specific location — usually the animals’ point-of-origin. Once assigned to a specific premise, the tags cannot be transferred to another farm or operation.

For sheep and goats, official ID includes official Scrapie Program flock tags bearing the US shield, electronic implants (microchips) for breed-registered animals only, and tattoos with registration papers or entire flock ID beginning with state prefix (example: IN) and a unique individual ID number. For questions about how identification requirements intersect with movement documentation, you can also reference brand inspection requirements in Washington for a comparison of western-state traceability systems.

Biosecurity Plan Requirements in Indiana

Indiana does not mandate a single universal written biosecurity plan for all livestock producers, but biosecurity planning is embedded in several regulatory frameworks that affect your operation depending on its size, species, and activities.

Certified Livestock Producers must demonstrate their commitment to the environment, animal well-being, food safety, emergency planning, and biosecurity. Participation in ISDA’s Certified Livestock Producer Program (CLPP) requires completing self-assessments that function as documented biosecurity plans. While the program is voluntary, it aligns your operation with the standards that BOAH enforces during disease investigations.

For swine producers, Indiana has been actively developing preparedness frameworks tied to national programs. BOAH has been working with the USDA and swine industry on a multi-faceted preparedness effort, which includes national ASF exercises, an integrated surveillance plan, and a voluntary program for swine producers based on the framework of the national Secure Pork Supply (SPS) plan.

Regardless of whether you participate in a formal program, BOAH’s guidance makes clear that every livestock owner should maintain documented biosecurity practices. Early detection of a highly contagious animal disease and prompt reporting are critical to a successful response. A written plan supports that goal by establishing clear protocols for your workers before an emergency occurs.

Your biosecurity plan should address at minimum: animal entry and isolation procedures, visitor and vehicle access protocols, sanitation checkpoints, disease surveillance and reporting triggers, and emergency response contacts including BOAH’s 24-hour line at (317) 544-2400. You can also study how neighboring states approach formal planning requirements, such as livestock disease reporting in Colorado and livestock disease reporting in California, for benchmarking purposes.

Animal Isolation and Movement Control Requirements in Indiana

Controlling how and when animals move onto, off of, and within your premises is one of the most legally significant biosecurity obligations you have as an Indiana livestock producer. State law establishes firm requirements — and criminal penalties — for improper animal movement.

A person who knowingly or intentionally imports a domestic animal into Indiana without taking suitable precautions to prevent the introduction and spread of contagious or infectious disease, in conformance with the rules adopted by the board, commits a Level 6 felony.

A person who knowingly or intentionally moves, from the property on which the domestic animal is confined, a domestic animal that has an infectious or a contagious disease, except under rules adopted by the board, commits a Level 6 felony.

Entry Requirements and Certificates of Veterinary Inspection

For cattle and bison entering Indiana, a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) is required for entry into Indiana for all cattle and bison, both domestic and wild, with the following exceptions: animals traveling directly to slaughter, animals traveling directly to a licensed market that do not leave Indiana, animals traveling to a facility for veterinary treatment that will return to the state of origin, and animals traveling through the state without being unloaded. The CVI must be issued by a licensed and accredited veterinarian within the 30 days immediately prior to the animal entering Indiana.

For sheep and goats, official ID is required for all animals regardless of age. Exceptions include animals moving directly to an approved market where the animal will be ID’d. Documentation required includes a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection with official ID of each animal, written within 30 days of entry.

Movement Record-Keeping

Once animals are on your premises, ongoing movement documentation is required. Producers are required to keep records of livestock movements for 5 years. This includes purchases, sales, leases, bartering, trading, and exchanging. Records must include the name and address of buyer and seller, transaction date, all animal identification numbers, breed, sex, and reason for movement.

If you are moving out-of-state animals through Indiana markets to Indiana farms, additional reporting applies. Reports for out-of-state animals that are moving through Indiana markets to Indiana farms must be submitted to BOAH. Reports may be submitted as a spreadsheet or in another legible format. Reports must contain: name and address of the source, number of head, all official ID numbers, species/breed, sex (if known), and name and address of the animals’ destinations. Reports are due on the first and third Fridays of each month.

For producers who also transport animals across state lines, reviewing livestock trailer requirements in Pennsylvania or livestock trailer requirements in Wisconsin can help you understand the documentation and equipment standards you will encounter at your destination.

Visitor, Vehicle, and Equipment Sanitation Rules in Indiana

Human traffic, vehicles, and shared equipment are among the most common pathways for disease introduction onto a livestock premises. Indiana’s biosecurity guidance and the Certified Livestock Producer standards both address these vectors directly.

BOAH’s three-point biosecurity campaign outlines the minimum sanitation steps every livestock owner and visitor should follow based on where they have been:

• If you have had contact with the general public: change your shoes.
• If you have been to a market, sale barn, or fairground: change your clothes and shoes.
• If you have been to another farm operation: shower, plus change your clothes and shoes.

These steps represent the baseline. For commercial operations and those participating in the CLPP, sanitation protocols should be formalized and consistently enforced. The program recognizes producers who are committed to raising livestock in ways that are sensitive to the environment, healthy and safe for the animals, employees and consumers, and conscious of their community.

For vehicles, the standard practice is to designate a clean/dirty line at your farm entrance and require all vehicles — including feed delivery trucks, veterinary vehicles, and rendering trucks — to stop at a sanitation station before proceeding to animal housing areas. Wheel baths, tire spray systems, and cab disinfection protocols are all components of a defensible vehicle biosecurity program.

Equipment shared between farms presents a particularly high risk. Trailers, loading chutes, and squeeze chutes should be cleaned and disinfected between uses. Indiana’s livestock care law reinforces this: reasonable measures to protect from injury or disease that can reasonably be expected to seriously endanger life or health of the animals are required of every person responsible for livestock care. Shared equipment that is not properly sanitized can constitute a failure of that standard.

Wildlife and Pest Control Obligations in Indiana

Wildlife and pest intrusion into livestock facilities creates direct biosecurity risk — both from disease transmission and from physical disruption of feed, water, and housing systems. Indiana’s livestock care standards and biosecurity guidance both identify wildlife and pest control as a producer obligation.

Reasonable measures to protect from injury or disease that can reasonably be expected to seriously endanger life or health of the animals are required. Animals with an injury or disease that seriously endangers the life or health of the animal must be provided with treatment or euthanized. Allowing persistent wildlife access to livestock housing in a way that leads to disease exposure can be construed as a failure of this standard.

Indiana’s landscape creates specific wildlife pressure. Indiana’s mix of urban suburbs and rural fields brings common threats like raccoons in cities to coyotes in rural areas. For poultry operations in particular, protecting against avian flu and disease with strong biosecurity requires active exclusion of wild birds and rodents from housing areas.

Key wildlife and pest control practices you should implement include:

• Securing all feed storage in rodent-proof containers and elevating feeders off the ground
• Sealing gaps in barn walls, rooflines, and foundation areas that allow bird or rodent entry
• Installing exclusion netting over open-air poultry housing during high-risk avian influenza periods
• Maintaining a perimeter buffer zone free of brush, debris, and standing water that attracts wildlife
• Deploying traps or working with a licensed pest control operator for persistent rodent pressure

For operations that use livestock guardian animals as part of their wildlife deterrence strategy, understanding the role of livestock guardian dogs can help you integrate biological deterrents alongside physical exclusion measures. Indiana also requires that guardian dogs and all dogs on farm premises comply with rabies vaccine requirements in Indiana — a legal obligation that intersects directly with your wildlife biosecurity program.

BOAH’s dead animal disposal rules also address wildlife access to carcasses as a biosecurity issue. State law requires that domestic animals be kept from accessing the compost pile. Domestic and wild animals are to be controlled so they do not disrupt the compost pile. This can be accomplished by surrounding the pile with a fence, placing it in a building, covering the pile, or using an in-vessel composting system.

Dead Animal Disposal Requirements in Indiana

Proper carcass disposal is one of the most clearly defined and strictly enforced biosecurity obligations in Indiana. Improper disposal creates disease risk, attracts wildlife, and can contaminate groundwater — all of which carry regulatory consequences.

The responsibility of owning livestock does not end when an animal dies. In Indiana, state law requires an animal owner to dispose properly of a livestock carcass within 24 hours of learning of an animal’s death. The list of approved disposal methods is overseen by the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) as a matter of health and safety.

BOAH has approved seven carcass disposal methods for animal remains: burial, above-ground burial, incineration, composting, rendering, exotic animal feeding, and anaerobic and chemical digestion.

Approved Disposal Methods at a Glance

An alternative to traditional burial is above-ground burial. When burying carcasses above ground, soil excavation of the burial trench must be to a depth in the range of 20 inches to 24 inches with at least 12 inches of carbonaceous material covering the entire bottom of the trench. Whole carcasses of adult cattle, equine, and swine must be placed in a single layer. Carcasses placed in the trench are to be covered within 24 hours.

For on-farm composting, on-farm composting is an option for livestock owners. By following a proven “recipe,” an established on-farm composter can produce nutrient-rich organic matter suitable for field application in a few months. Dry organic material, like sawdust, is layered with animal remains to generate heat to speed decomposition. Carcasses are completely composted when no visible pieces of soft tissue remain.

Rendering is often the most practical option for larger operations. Rendering can be a convenient, clean, and waste-free solution that ultimately recycles the remains into other products. The renderer generally provides on-farm pickup for a fee. Each company determines which species they will accept and geographic locations they will serve.

In a declared animal health emergency, additional flexibility may apply. In an animal health event, BOAH may authorize a producer to euthanize animals and leave them in a location for longer than 24 hours before the carcasses are removed for disposal. This exception exists to prevent the spread of highly contagious pathogens during large-scale depopulation events.

Reports of improper disposal of livestock and poultry carcasses will be reviewed by BOAH for appropriate action. Suspected cases/complaints may be submitted to BOAH online, by phone at (877) 747-3038, or via email at animalhealth@boah.in.gov.

If you operate in multiple states or transport animals across state lines as part of your operation, understanding the full compliance picture is essential. Review livestock trailer requirements in Nevada for western-state transport standards, and consult BOAH’s official resources at in.gov/boah for the most current Indiana-specific guidance. Producers with questions about Indiana-specific animal health laws beyond biosecurity — such as rabies vaccine requirements for cats in Indiana — will find BOAH’s animal-related laws page a comprehensive starting point.