Stakeholder perspectives on biosecurity adoption in the Colorado cattle supply chain: lessons from foot-and-mouth disease preparedness.

Biosecurity is essential to protecting cattle health and maintaining continuity of business during high-consequence disease events, yet adoption of preparedness measures remains uneven across the beef supply chain. Using foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) as a motivating case, we examine how Colorado cattle-industry stakeholders define practical biosecurity and what lessons support preparedness before an emergency. Data were collected through 12 focus groups and 18 individual interviews with 75 stakeholders across nine cattle-industry sectors, followed by four cross-sector workshops with 56 participants. FMD was widely perceived as a distant, low-priority threat, while time, labor, cost, operational scale, traceability burdens, seasonal and geographic constraints, and limited veterinary access shaped what stakeholders considered feasible. Workshop participants identified visitor/vendor hygiene and controlled access as the most feasible measures, while quarantining new or returning animals received the most votes for both impact and urgency, followed by avoiding commingling with animals from other herds (impact) and knowing or asking about disease status of source herds (urgency). Trusted local messengers and cross-sector communication protocols emerged as central to practical, voluntary biosecurity improvement in Colorado. Strengthening biosecurity will require practical tools, trusted communication networks, and cross-sector planning that reflect the day-to-day realities of cattle operations.