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Abstract

Excerpts: Agritourism is an important and growing sector of the livestock industry, where farms invite the public onto their operations for mutually beneficial purposes. Agritourism provides valuable educational opportunities for the public and serves as an important source of revenue for many producers through consumer direct promotion and sales of products. Goat agritourism activities often include feeding and playing with goats, goat yoga classes, and sales of goat products such as milk, cheeses, soaps, and lotions. Goat agritourism is a fun and generally safe way to introduce both adults and children to livestock and agricultural production systems. At the same time, interactions between people and animals provide opportunities for zoonotic disease transmission and unsafe physical interactions for either people or animals. Good biosecurity and safe food handling practices can help minimize public and animal health risks. This document provides a summary of data collected as part of the NAHMS Goat 2019 Study focused on goat agritourism operations' management practices and highlights possible areas of improvement to help ensure operations and visitors benefit from agritourism. An agritourism operation was defined as one that allowed the general public onto the operation and the general public had access to areas or facilities on the farm that housed or contained animals, feed, manure, or farm equipment.

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