- ✓Know the ten basic barriers and the role of each one
- ✓Organise the single entrance, the footbath, the clothing and the visits
- ✓Manage the most common sources of contamination: outside birds, cages, carcasses, rodents
The ten barriers
- 1. A single entrance to the farm and one per house, closed, with a sign “Poultry farm, no entry”.
- 2. The footbath: a tray with disinfectant at the right dose, covered (sun and rain), renewed every 1 to 2 days, at every door. Both boots are dipped in it on the way in and on the way out.
- 3. Dedicated boots and clothing: you change shoes and coat at the farm entrance; the house boots do not leave the house.
- 4. Visitors: as few as possible; never someone who has come from another farm or from the market the same day; a visitors' book (name, date, where they came from).
- 5. No other birds on the site: no village hens, no ducks, no guinea fowl, no caged birds. And nets over the openings against wild birds.
- 6. Cages and equipment: washed and disinfected before coming in; market cages never touch the house; no unsold birds brought back.
- 7. Rodents and insects: baits in closed boxes around the houses, feed stored closed, surroundings cleared for 3 m, no waste.
- 8. Carcasses: covered pit with lime, compost or incineration; never in the field or the river.
- 9. The order of visits: always from the house with the youngest birds to the oldest, from healthy to sick, never the other way round.
- 10. The sanitary break and the single flock: one age per house (all in, all out), and the sanitary break respected between two flocks.
Why “no other birds”
The village hen scratching around the house carries Newcastle disease without being sick; the duck in the yard harbours influenza viruses; the wild bird perched on the wire mesh leaves its droppings in the feeders. It is not a question of affection for the yard animals: it is a question of a door left open or closed. A commercial poultry farm lives separately from the backyard flock, or it suffers all its diseases.
Visits and the veterinarian
The veterinarian, the technician and the buyer visit several farms a day: they are the most useful and the most dangerous visitors. They are given the farm's boots and coat, they go through the footbath, they do not touch the birds unless necessary, and the healthy house is visited before the suspect house. The buyer sees the birds from the entrance or receives the birds outside: they do not enter the house with their cages.
Biosecurity when disease is about
When a disease is circulating in the area (Newcastle disease at the neighbours', avian influenza reported), you tighten up: no visitors at all, vehicles disinfected at the entrance (wheels sprayed), boots changed at every house, feed purchases delivered to the farm entrance and not to the house, and emergency vaccination if the veterinarian decides so. You relax when the veterinarian says the area is calm.
For the entrepreneur
- ›Decide the rules, put them up, and follow them yourself first: a boss who walks in wearing town shoes cancels everything.
- ›Forbid backyard poultry on the farm site, without exception; it is the hardest decision and the one that pays most.
- ›A visitors' book, two more pairs of boots and a covered footbath: less than the price of ten chickens.
For the technician
- ›Footbath renewed every 1 to 2 days, covered, used on the way in and on the way out; dedicated boots per house.
- ›Visits from youngest to oldest, from healthy to sick; no market cage near the house.
- ›Rodent baits checked every week; surroundings cleared; carcasses in the pit the same day.
The 3 questions to ask your technician this week
- When was the footbath renewed, and who went into the house this week?
- Are there backyard poultry or wild birds coming onto the site?
- In what order do you visit the houses, and are boots changed between them?
Key points
- •Ten barriers: single entrance, footbath, boots and clothing, limited visitors, no other birds, disinfected cages, rodents, carcasses, order of visits, single flock and sanitary break.
- •Footbath covered, at the right dose, renewed every 1 to 2 days, on the way in and on the way out.
- •Visits from youngest to oldest, from healthy to sick; the buyer does not come in with their cages.
- •No backyard poultry on the site: it is the decision that pays most.
- •When there is disease in the area: all the barriers are tightened.