Poultry Disease Prevention 101: Sanitation & Biosecurity

The job of preventing disease-causing pathogens from crossing your poultry house threshold relies on 2 defensive factors:

1. Sanitation (cleanliness)
2. Biosecurity (containment)

By practicing these disciplines, you can minimise the opportunities for infection reaching your flocks and profits.

Here are some key points:

Poultry House Biosecurity

Using a systematic approach to containing your flock within a well-controlled, clean environment is the discipline of biosecurity.

When shoring up your farm against disease infection, the following 13 steps are advised:

Personnel access & care

✓ Carefully control who accesses your poultry farm, where they go & how they behave on-site.

Examples:

• Limit non-essential visitors
• Keep visitor logs for all people accessing your farm
• State a minimum no-bird contact period for arriving visitors e.g. 3 days
• Stockmen should visit younger flocks first, then older flocks which have a hardier resistance to disease
• Shower on and shower off policy (minimum five minutes and using recommended chemical products)
• Hand and footwear sanitising stations at the entrance of ever poultry house
• Boot changing
• Head nets
• Correct protective clothing for all personnel coming into close contact with flocks e.g. catchers

Vehicular and equipment treatment

✓ Whilst vehicles carry passengers and freight – they also carry pathogens and harbour dirt. Knock out the threat of infection by a regime of caring for items you use and drive.

Examples:

• Use wheel dips and chemical spraying facilities to douse down vehicles at the site entrance.
• Don’t accept non-essential vehicular visits to site.

Perimeter integrity

✓ Hold firm boundaries and prevent threats to your flock’s health entering your domain.

Examples:

• Site boundary should be stock-proof fenced.

Structural integrity & control

✓ Poultry house structures are a final line of defence. Batten down the hatches, repair all breaches, secure all doors, windows and vents. Keep invasion at bay.

Examples:

• Lock doors and gates continually

Segregation

✓ Cross-contamination is a killer of flocks. Don’t allow non-flock, farm animals to mix with your flocks.

Examples:

• No other poultry should be kept on-site.
• Pets should be given their own space and entrance on-site away from livestock buildings.

Rogue control

✓ Do not tolerate strays. They are a prime biohazard to your flock (and profit) well-being. Put up an impenetrable guard against unwanted visitors.

Examples:

• Houses must be vermin-proof
• Monitor rodent activity on-site and lay bait boxes to rid your farm of them

Ground clearance

✓ Keep your grounds impeccably clear and clean. Mess…infects…so stay vigilant and keep your site tidy.

Example:

• Carefully remove unwanted items from the site e.g. vegetation, debris (allow bacteria no place to hide)

Site proximity

✓ Planning your site location is key to winning the battle against infection. Do all due diligence possible to ensure your farm will not become neighbours to any other livestock communes of any sort.

Examples:

• Don’t build your poultry farm near any others
• Build away from rivers and lakes to avoid wild avian contact

Logistical prudence

✓ Managing the ins and outs and roundabouts of traffic – whether wheeled or pedestrian – through your farm will have a huge impact on securing your flock against the contraction of disease.

Example:

• Also, always visit an infected flock on days when no other visits are scheduled.

Flock conformity

✓ Keep like-for-like age-segregated flocks and breeds. This way minimising the risk of introducing pathogens.

Examples:

• Flock visits should always be scheduled to younger flocks first, then older flocks after.
• Chicks should be placed as same-aged cohorts and similar vaccination status.

Downtime

✓ Allowing a little scheduled downtime or breathing space between occupancy changeover in your poultry house will shut down any lingering threats.

Example:

• Allow 3 days non-occupancy between flocks (from last disinfection to new chick placement)

Reuse diligence

✓ Understanding the risks and best practice surrounding the re-use of litter and feed will guide you well in preventing disease.

Example:

• If you plan on re-using litter between flocks, allow for a minimum of 14 days downtime (if non-antibiotic, increase this to 18 days minimum)

Auditing

✓ Regularly check and trial your biosecurity practices – making adjustments wherever better judgment leads you to improve.

Example:

• Complete checklists, journal entries and audits on practice against leading recommendations and guidelines.

Poultry House Sanitation

Cleanliness and hygiene goes far beyond choice of chemical agent. It’s a general attitude and manner of not tolerating sources of biological threats on-site. It takes vigilance and enmity against any slack-handedness that might lower the defensive shield.

The following steps will help you maintain a zero-tolerance approach with outstanding results:

Maintain defences post-catch

✓ Don’t slack off after the catch. Keep access to the house entirely secure allowing no introduction of new threats into your incoming flock’s future habitat.

Example:

• The temptation is to relax post-catch and consider your biosecurity job is done – resist the thought – rodent infestation is still a threat to future flock health…keep them out constantly.

Leftover management

✓ Leftover feed can be re-used safely if treated and handled correctly. Discern sanitary technique and rightly calculate potential risk.

Examples:

• Drain out all feed from systems – clearing the bins and augers completely. Every grain.
• If transferring left over feed, consider the health status of the departing flock carefully.

Litter removal

✓ Decide if complete litter removal will be your policy or partial and keep within guidelines on all treatment and handling.

Example:

• Discard all old litter and remove off-site in covered vehicular containers.

Dust and debris clearout

✓ Not just the obvious places, but also the more secluded crevices and corners will need thorough dusting and clearing.

Example:

• Inlets, fan boxes, beams … hard-to-reach places that gather dust are also a threat. Don’t miss these out.

Dry cleaning

✓ Where water contact is inadvisable, you must adopt recommended dry cleaning practice for best results. No cutting corners.

Example:

• Electrical equipment cannot be exempt from your poultry farm sanitation programme. You must chemically dry clean such machinery.

Drainage and runoff best practice

✓ High water usage is to be expected with proper site sanitation, however along with that comes the reality and responsibility of ample and clear drainage. This prevents pooling of standing water and leaving behind concentrated chemical residues both of which are harmful to flocks.

Examples:

• Open and free up all drains when washing.
• Combine pressure washing with general detergent and disinfectants.
• Wash from top-down and in-out to avoid reintroducing contaminated run-off.

Non-livestock area care

✓ Site areas that only people occupy are equally important in the fight against flock contamination. We are as much vectors for pathogens as animals, vehicles and equipment. So wherever we congregate must be met with the same scrutiny.

Example:

• Control rooms and generator rooms need to be cleaned carefully with power-sources in mind.

Systems drainage and flushing out

✓ Water and feed systems need clearing and cleaning out between flock changeovers. Take note of advised industry practice.

Examples:

• All water and vaccination storage tanks should be opened and scrubbed out using detergent.
• Drain completely before adding cleaning solutions.

Attention to fixtures and fittings

✓ A poultry house is not a single structure, but rather a composite structure made of many parts. Each part therefore requires close attention when performing cleaning routines to avoid ineffective sanitation and disease outbreak.

Examples:

• Pay attention to all moveable and immovable parts of the poultry house and clean with individual care e.g. curtains in curtain sided house.
• Any lids of feeders, for example, that cannot be cleaned must be disposed of between flocks.

Inside Out

✓ The curtilage of a poultry house poses a threat from footfall tracking in biohazards within the four walls of your flock’s home. Keep the outside as clean as the inside to avoid attack.

Examples:

• Thoroughly clean all gutters, pathways, roofs etc. even scaffolding if performing repairs.
• Dispose of any un-used equipment.

Repairs

✓ Changeovers are the ideal time to get your repairs in. Any equipment or features of the poultry house, site other buildings should be attended to for fixing or replacements during this operational downtime.

Examples:

• Cracks in the foundations.
• External defects and breaches in buildings.

Recommended substance use

✓ Chemicals typically have the desired effect when you use them according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Don’t go off-script, but be smart and maintain guided practice.

Example:

• Consider temperatures, ‘best before’ use dates and concentrations.

Chemical coverage

✓ Chemical agents act wherever they make contact. Therefore coverage is key. Apply chemicals as advised.

Example:

• Use broad-spectrum disinfectant.
• Apply with pressure washer fan-jet nozzle.
• Saturate targeted areas in solution.

Drying

✓ After disinfecting, proper drying locks-in the bactericidal effect. Make sure you allow plenty drying time after application.

Example:

• Speed-dry the environment with fans or heat.

Monitoring

✓ Keep a keen eye on the results and document/journal the after-affects in detail. Note areas of improvement and deductions gained from trialing new methods.

Example:

• Swab areas within the poultry house for microbiological monitoring.
• Floor cultures should not exceed 1000 TVC (total viable count) and other surfaces 100 TVC per cm squared.

Now, over to you…

That concludes my round-up on poultry house disease prevention.

• How familiar are you with the proactive measures in this checklist?
• Do you have personal experiences to share of biosecurity or sanitation on a poultry farm?
• Are you new to all this and want further drill down info on some points?

Either way, I’d be happy to talk.

Leave a comment below.