Avian Influenza and Your Farm

Basic Biosecurity for the Commercial Flock

Disease control and biosecurity are insurance against contagious diseases such as Avian Influenza. To reduce the risk from this disease, you need to implement basic biosecurity on your farm as well as take additional steps to control the risk posed by waterfowl and visitors to your farm. 

Barns, Yards and Equipment

• The most effective place to stop Avian Influenza is at the barn door. If it does not get into a commercial barn, it will not be able to spread within the commercial industry.
  
• Keep your barn door locked and post a sign indicating that only authorized personnel are allowed inside.
  
• Create a zone around your barn in which only essential vehicles such as feed and chick trucks are allowed. The zone should extend at least 15 m (50 feet) from your barn. Post a sign telling people where they should park. Truck drivers who must enter the control zone around your barn should wear disposable or clean, washable footwear. Discuss biosecurity with companies that must send trucks into your controlled access zone.
  
• It is preferable to have an enclosed, clean, clutter-free entry way or hallway into a poultry barn, with doors at both ends.  This prevents barn dust and dander from contaminating coats and foot wear that staff and visitors may wear to the barn.  If no entry way is available, then coveralls can be provided at the parking sites so visitors can leave their coats at their vehicles.  Plastic booties (or dedicated boots) and head covers then need to be available at the parking area or barn door.
  
• Keep the area within at least 15 m (50 feet) of your barn clean and free of debris. Keep the grass cut. Sunlight is a good disinfectant if it is not blocked by clutter. Maintain a rodent and fly control program.
  
• If you have a dugout or other surface body of water supplying drinking water for your birds, the incoming water should be chlorinated at all times. Monitor the chlorine level and pH of the water to ensure that the chlorination is effective.
  
• Stop wild birds from entering your barn. Keep screens over your inlets well maintained.
  
• Disinfect any equipment leaving or entering your barn
  
• Egg trays, dividers and pallets should be cleaned and allowed to dry at the grading station prior to being shipped to your farm. A drying time of three days for wooden pallets and dividers is recommended. Pallets and dividers should be used only a limited number of times before being retired from use on farms. Producers should place any dirty trays in a garbage bag and send to the grading station for cleaning.

Staff and Visitors

• Do not have unnecessary visitors in your barn. Have anyone entering your barn sign a log book.  Request that all non regular visitors entering the barn have not been exposed to live birds or swine for 3 days prior to entry.
  
• Ensure that regular service personnel are aware of and perform proper biosecurity procedures and prioritize poultry farm visits according to biosecurity status.
  
• Provide a contact phone number where a visitor may contact once they arrive.
  
• All people entering your barn, including farm workers, catching crews and truck drivers, should have clean, protective outerwear (footwear, coveralls and hat or hair net). Separate footwear for each barn is preferred. Have these items available for visitors and farm workers.
  
• All farmers, workers and visitors should wash their hands after handling birds. A hand wash area should be provided in the barn.
  
• People leaving your barns should not wear any of their barn clothing (boots, coveralls, hat etc.) inside their vehicles. People should wash their hands before entering their vehicles. Dirty clothing should be secured in a plastic bag and cleaned as soon as possible. The inside of vehicles should be kept clean. These recommendations apply to farmers, farm employees and weekend help as well as visitors and delivery people.
  
• Request that any person who has visited a live bird market or has visited an Avian Influenza infected region not have contact with swine or poultry for 2 weeks prior to entering your barn.  Live bird markets include auction markets and ethnic markets were consumers view birds live before purchasing the carcass.

Activities

• Do not sell eggs or birds on-farm. Direct egg and bird sales only increase traffic on your farm.
  
• Hunting wild fowl, visiting zoos or wildlife reserves, or visiting locations where backyard flocks are present are risky activities.  Barn staff should not have a back yard flock or swine herd at their own home.
  
• If your birds have access to an outdoor range or exercise yard, be especially vigilant during the fall migration of wild waterfowl.  It is important to have a veterinarian examine any unusual mortality that occurs during this time.

Remember to investigate all mortalities and production losses that occur outside of expected values, especially those that have a sudden onset.

 

Carlyle Bennett, Terry Whiting and Glen Duizer
Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives