- ✓Organise the site into zones (clean, dirty, intermediate) and control the flows
- ✓Structure the staff and the written procedures
- ✓Meet the obligations: licences, registers, neighbours, environment
The site in zones
| Zone | What is found there | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Outer zone (dirty) | Car park, reception of lorries, storage of cages, sales | No outside vehicle goes any further; wheels and cages disinfected |
| Intermediate zone | Changing room with shower or complete change of clothes, office, feed store, water reserve | You enter on one side in town clothes, you leave on the other in farm clothes |
| Clean zone (rearing) | Poultry houses, each house with its own footbath and boots | From the youngest to the oldest; staff assigned per house or per age group |
| Carcass disposal zone | Pit, compost or incinerator, set apart and downwind and downstream of the water | Separate circuit, never through the clean zone |
The flows are drawn on a plan: feed comes in through the dirty zone and is transferred (silo, or bags via the store); chicks arrive in a disinfected vehicle; chickens leave via a loading bay at the edge of the clean zone; carcasses leave via the disposal circuit; people pass through the changing room. A flow that crosses another is a weak point.
The staff
A farm manager (production, planning, purchasing), a health manager (consulting veterinarian or senior technician: vaccinations, monitoring of indicators, alerts), house managers or group managers (one for 10,000 to 20,000 broilers depending on the equipment), workers (one for 3,000 to 5,000 birds with manual systems, more with equipment), a cleaning and sanitary break team, security 24 hours a day. Everyone has a job description and a designated replacement.
The staff live outside the clean zone, or in accommodation in the intermediate zone with the same rules of passage. And the staff keep no poultry at home: it is a clause in the contract.
The written procedures
Everything that is repeated is written as a one-page procedure: reception of the chicks, brooding, vaccination via the water, weighing, collection and disposal of dead birds, cleaning of a house, entry of visitors, feed delivery, loading of the chickens, health alert. Each procedure has a person in charge, a checklist to tick and a signature. Internal audits (once a month, by the health manager) check that what is written is done. Deviations are corrected without drama: that is the purpose of the audit.
The level 4 indicators are reported every week per house and consolidated per site (dashboard, lesson 8 of this level).
Obligations and neighbours
- Licences and declarations: the activity is regulated (rearing, hatchery, slaughterhouse, imports). The Ministry of Animal and Fisheries Resources and its veterinary services issue the authorisations and carry out the inspections; IPRAVI (the inter-professional body) supports the sector. Find out before expanding.
- Registers that are compulsory or expected: rearing register per house, register of treatments and withdrawal periods, vaccination register, visitors' register, mortality register (lesson 5 of this level).
- Neighbours and environment: smells, flies, manure, washing water, lorry noise. Distance from dwellings, management of manure (composting, sale), watertight pits, lorry traffic plan at proper hours. A neighbour who complains becomes an inspection.
- Insurance and safety: fire, theft, accidents at work; fire extinguishers, first aid, training.
For the entrepreneur
- ›Before going beyond 10,000 birds, draw the site in zones and flows on a plan; one more house is decided on this plan.
- ›Recruit a health manager (consulting veterinarian or senior technician): he is the one who spares you the epidemic.
- ›Find out about licences and registers before expanding; an unhappy neighbour becomes an inspection.
For the technician
- ›Respect the zones and the flows: never a shortcut through the clean zone.
- ›Every procedure is ticked and signed; deviations are reported, not hidden.
- ›No poultry at home, and farm clothes only on the site.
The 3 questions to ask your technician this week
- Which flow (feed, chicks, chickens, carcasses, people) crosses another on our site, and how do we separate them?
- Which procedures are written, and which one is still missing?
- Which register is not up to date today?
Key points
- •Site in zones: dirty (lorries, cages), intermediate (changing room, feed, water), clean (houses), carcass disposal set apart; separate flows.
- •Structured staff: farm manager, health manager, house managers, workers, cleaning, security; designated replacements; no poultry at home.
- •One-page procedures with checklists, monthly internal audits.
- •Licences and registers (rearing, treatments, vaccinations, visitors, mortality); neighbours and environment managed; insurance.