Top 7 biosecurity in poultry farms: My chickens are dying

Biosecurity in poultry farms can save your investment in lots of ways you can ever imagine. There are a lot of factors associated to why your chickens are dying one by one. Biosecurity in poultry farms compliance goes a long way toward safeguarding your hard-earned cash invested in poultry farming.

Every operation on the poultry farm must adhere to biosecurity guidelines. The main stages of biosecurity are discussed in this article and how to ensure them on the farm. Huge numbers of poultry farms in America close down when there is an alert of disease infections.

Types of biosecurity in poultry farm

The types of biosecurity in poultry farms can be grouped under the following mood of infection;

Biological protection.

This type of biosecurity involves ensuring the chickens are biologically fit and healthy to reduce the rate of disease infection in poultry.

Human to birds biosecurity.

Avoiding the exposure of chickens to visitors by creating barriers to protect then from any possible infections.

Feed biosecurity.

Feed contamination is one of the major ways disease can spread in poultry. Ensuring the purchase of wholesome feed from a trusted source will protect your birds from any possible infections from feeding.

Biosecurity in poultry hatchery

The first point of biosecurity to consider is the source of day old chickens for the farm. Baby chickens are highly susceptible to disease infections which mostly comes with the baby chicks form the hatchery to the destination farm.

Sick parent birds are likely to transfer diseases through the eggs laid. This become biological and will show up after few days of raising the chicks on the farm. Modern hatcheries have diverse means of vaccinating the chicks through in-vivo vaccination or infrared vaccination.

Any serious hatchery puts a barrier at entrances to control who and what goes into the hatchery and what comes out of the hatchery. Good hatchery practices ensures the best and healthy chicks are distributed to farmers after purchase.

Biosecurity in poultry

The steps provided in this biosecurity guide are to observed like protecting every investment you own. You and I know how expensive it is to set up a poultry business, hence, it will be to study carefully and establish biosecurity in poultry farms.

Food safety is key to the health of individuals. In the United States, a lot of people consume processed food and for public safety and healthy consumption, Tyson Food was ranked best poultry processing food company in United States. Below are some basic protocols you need to achieve biosecurity in poultry.

1) Farm workers hygiene protocol

In an ideal world, unique farm clothes would be given and worn while working on a chicken farm. After washing, clothing must be dried and ironed to effectively eliminate any airborne infection. Vaccination teams should not be let in unless they have changed into farm-supplied attire. Boots should be disinfected before and after usage on the farm.

2) Disease control and management

Prepare a strategy for dealing with disease outbreaks on the farm. Ensure that dead birds are properly disposed of and that the area is fumigated. The birds’ water source must be clean and free of infection. As soon as possible, isolate and treat sick birds.

3) Litter management

Litter should be collected from well-kept locations. Before using the litter, fumigant it and let it dry completely. When the litter becomes saturated and emits ammonia gas, it should be replaced.

4) Restricting Visitors

All guests must change into farm-provided attire before entering the farm. Please register the details of everybody who comes to the farm. Visitors are not authorized to touch the birds unless otherwise specified.

5) Farm Barrier

The distance between farms is a great physical barrier. Every farm must have a perimeter fence with a lock to prevent unlawful access by persons, cars, and animals. Use enough signs to inform outside visitors.

6) Use Foot-Bath regularly

Make a foot bath with an effective bacteria-killing detergent and have employees walk into it before entering and exiting the chicken pen.

7) Dealing with dead birds

Burn or bury deceased birds far from the chicken coop. Consumption of disease-killed birds is prohibited since it may be harmful to one’s health. If there is a high mortality rate, see a veterinarian for a postmortem examination.

It is not difficult to understand and apply biosecurity in poultry farms. Implementing these processes requires only a little bit of effort. Airborne, soil-borne, and water-borne diseases spread swiftly across a number of mediums, with individuals serving as the major carriers.

Despite the fact that any unanticipated microbe infection can put a big commercial chicken farm out of business, most large-scale commercial poultry farms have put these protections in place. When poultry birds, particularly layers, become infected, they become less productive; thus, never expose them to infection to keep the farm functioning properly.

Importance of biosecurity in poultry

Poultry producers are recommended to maintain a high degree of surveillance in their areas for unexpected outbreaks of poultry illnesses.

Because of the global danger of bird flu, biosecurity, or the technique of keeping poultry birds disease-free, has become a major concern. Isolation, traffic management, and cleanliness are all components of successful biosecurity that protect animals from becoming infected with bacteria, viruses, and other organisms.

A strong biosecurity in poultry farms can assist to avoid pathogen transfer from farm to farm. The first line of defense against foreign and other poultry diseases is to provide veterinarians, poultry farmers, and other animal owners with information on relevant farm diseases.

In summary, the importance of biosecurity in poultry helps you to save cost and time. Supposing the whole farm gets infected with a disease, you would have to kill and destroy every single bird on the farm, after that, you will need to observe a total farm fumigation of which they add up to huge sums of money to spend.

What are some biosecurity measures?

1. Regularly wash farm trucks
2. Wash and dry farm apparel regularly
3. Sanitize farm boots and equipment
4. Provide clean and safe water for the birds
5. Supply feed free from contamination
6. Change soaked litter and keep pen free from moisture
7. Discard dead birds with care
8. Limit or avoid visitors in the poultry-yard
9. Report abnormal casualties to the veterinary
10. Isolate sick and poor-performing birds from the flock.
11. Use recommended medication to avoid any complications
12. Do not consume dead birds or sell sick birds to consumers

Source:PoultryABC.com

Thanks for reading from PoultryABC.com an agriculture publishing website from Ghana. You are free to share this story via the various social media platforms and follow us on; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.