Poultry

• Whether you raise poultry in confinement housing or outdoor pens, maintain a low-stress environment by providing good nutrition and health care, adequate space, shelter from extreme weather conditions, and care in handling. Disease problems occur less in animals raised in stress-free conditions.
• Maintain a “closed flock”. Remember that bringing in new birds is the easiest way that disease is introduced to your resident flock. A closed flock means that you do not mix new birds into your resident flock(s) and you do not reintroduce any resident birds who have been off your farm without a suitable isolation period.
• Use an “all out-all in” animal flow system. Birds are “sized” or separated into groups of the same age and producing stage. In addition, separate out the different types of poultry (such as chickens vs. turkeys vs. quail). This helps to prevent disease between groups of animals.
• Complete animal care duties in the order of the least immune birds to the most immune birds (such as young to old animals).
• Observe all animals at least once daily for signs of disease, including lameness, lethargy, respiratory noise, or sudden death.

General Recommendations

• Maintain flocks in enclosed houses to reduce contact from other animals, wild birds and unnecessary human traffic.
• Keep excellent records for all flocks and bird movements in and out of your farm. These records can assist you during an animal disease outbreak. Information should include:

• • Origin of the birds
  • Disease testing history
  • Clinical Signs of illness cause of death or reason for culling the bird, etc.
  • Treatment dates and detailed records of antibiotic, parasite treatments, and vaccinations – to help observe withdrawal times for eating meat and eggs

• Have a valid veterinary/client/patient relationship that includes your veterinarian in all flock health decisions and not just when the birds are sick. Work together to develop guidelines for nutrition, vaccination, deworming, and other Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for different flock health tasks. Record all treatments and follow meat and/or egg withdrawal times.

• • Commercial poultry growers already have this relationship and guidelines through their integrator. Call your veterinarian or commercial flock supervisor if clinical signs are noticed.

• If vaccination is necessary, develop a vaccination protocol with help from your veterinarian to improve flock level immunity.

• • Administer booster vaccination when recommended and allow four weeks for immunity to develop for most vaccines. Understand vaccination may only reduce clinical signs in animals and not prevent infection
  • Handle modified live virus vaccines with care, keep cool, and out of sunlight. Do not use disinfectants (such as alcohol) in syringes or needles. Use transfer needles to mix the vaccine before using

New Birds

• Administer booster vaccination when recommended and allow four weeks for immunity to develop for most vaccines. Understand vaccination may only reduce clinical signs in animals and not prevent infection.
• Handle modified live virus vaccines with care, keep cool, and out of sunlight. Do not use disinfectants (such as alcohol) in syringes or needles. Use transfer needles to mix the vaccine before using.

• Designate isolation or quarantine facilities for all new birds (refer to Facilities section) before introducing them into the resident flock. Isolate new birds or returning birds for a minimum of three weeks and observe for clinical signs before introducing them into the resident flock.

• Care for birds in isolation or quarantine at the end of the day.

Employees

• Check references and perform background checks for all prospective employees.
• Train all employees to recognize signs of disease, alert the supervisor of suspicious activities, and understand and follow procedures within the biosecurity plan.
• Provide supervision to all new employees.
• Restrict employee access to their respective work areas.
• Train employees in good animal handling techniques, since this adds to a positive environment that assists in maintaining animals’ immunity against disease.
• Train employees to understand that the movement of manure (on clothing, boots, equipment, animals, etc.) is one of the biggest biosecurity risks for movement of diseases onto the farm.
• Warn employees who are allowed to have contact with off-farm birds of the same species to not track off-farm manure onto your farm.
• Require employees to wear clean clothing and boots.
• Create protocols for cleaning clothes daily and for washing boots and hands regularly.
• Require employees to wear gloves when vaccinating, caring for sick birds, and picking up dead birds.
• Require employees to work through groups of birds in a certain order, from clean to dirty, young to old, and healthy to sick birds, to reduce spreading disease to the more susceptible birds.
• Require employees working in “high risk areas,” such as sick pens or quarantine areas, to remain in those areas, or to change clothing and footwear before working with the other birds.
• Retrain employees regularly to maintain a high level of employee performance in all their tasks including the biosecurity plan.

Visitors

• Visitors include routinely scheduled persons (veterinarians, commercial flock supervisors, haulers, fuel/feed deliveries, inseminators, vaccinators, utility readers, etc.) and non-routine persons (tours, salespeople, other poultry owners, and regulatory personnel) that come onto your farm.
• No person should enter your farm without your prior approval.

• All visitors should sign a log book. Include information such as date, name, organization, phone number, reason for visit, and the last time they had contact with poultry. This list will be an important tool used by investigators to contain an outbreak.

• Evaluate the level of risk associated with your visitors: Do they own birds? Do they move between farms? Will they come in close contact with your birds? Have they recently returned from another country?

• Do not allow anyone who has been on a farm in a foreign country to enter livestock or poultry units for a minimum of five days after returning to the US. Other countries may have diseases in their flocks that are considered Transboundary Animal Diseases to us.

• Restrict visitors to the specific areas of the farm required for their task(s). Post signs to inform visitors of rules to follow while on the farm.

• Do not allow visitors to bring food articles with them on the farm.

• Visitors should be provided with new plastic shoe covers, clean rubber boots, or they must brush and then disinfect their shoes/boots with appropriate disinfectant before and after visiting the operation. Disinfectant will not work unless surfaces are clean and an adequate contact time is allowed.

• Visitors who will have contact with birds must wear clean coveralls.

• Visitors must wash hands their hands thoroughly with soap and warm water or hand sanitizer before and after entering bird areas.

• Limit access to your farm through gated entry sites that are clearly posted with signs.
• Post signs advising visitors that this is a biosecure area, and who to contact for entry permission.
• Lock gates and buildings when not in use.
• Repair and maintain fences. Fences should keep pastured backyard chickens animals/birds away from roads and other farms and should keep predators away from your flocks.

• Install and maintain ventilation and airflow systems in animal confinement buildings to reduce humidity, reduce stress, and prevent disease spread. Poor airflow can lead to ammonia and carbon dioxide build-up which can contribute to respiratory problems.
• Design the site to ensure there is no possibility for bird-to-bird contact, no shared ventilation air (indoors) and no shared feeding equipment between new and resident animals.
• Manage areas as all in-all out with cleaning, disinfection, and downtime between birds.
• Locate all poultry facilities as far away as possible from any public roads and neighboring farms.
• Lock all gates and storage buildings to keep secure while no one is working there.
• Store hazardous materials used on the farm (such as chemicals, fuels, pesticides, fertilizers) away from animal areas and feed areas and in secure locations with limited access. Maintain inventories and usage logs of these materials.
• Properly maintain equipment, buildings, fences, watering, feeding and waste management systems on a regular schedule.
• Reduce areas with standing water, drainage or run-off problems to reduce mosquito breeding areas.
• Locate sick pens separate from the isolation facilities which is separate from your healthy resident flock(s), if these facilities are used.
• Maintain strict entry/exit sanitation and traffic control for personnel working in these areas.
• Clean and disinfect these areas between flocks.
• Clean all housing and equipment between flocks or groups of birds, following these steps:

1. 1. remove and dispose of all visible organic matter.
   2. wash with an approved cleaning agent.
   3. rinse.
   4. apply approved disinfectant, and allow surfaces to dry before new groups of birds are moved in.

• Special attention should be paid to equipment such as trucks and trailers, manure loaders and spreaders, tractors, gloves and tires, and other fomites that could easily spread disease from one site to another. Clean equipment thoroughly after each load.

• Park vehicles away from poultry facilities, feed storage areas, and manure handling routes. Park all vehicles in designated areas, preferably on hard surfaces such as concrete or asphalt. Dirt, mud or manure on vehicles must not be allowed on unpaved areas. Use signs and/or barriers to direct vehicles to the designated areas.
• Do not share vehicles, trailers or equipment with other farms, without cleaning and disinfecting between uses.
• Be prepared to disinfect vehicle tires and wheel wells during a disease outbreak if a vehicle has to drive into flock production areas of your property.

• Buy feed from known, reliable vendors, and record all transactions.
• Store feed off the ground using feed tanks, pallets, barrels or containers with tight lids and smooth, cleanable surfaces.
• Protect feed from weather and moisture to prevent spoilage and mold growth. Remove and destroy spoiled feed and dispose of refused feed.
• Protect feed from vehicle and foot traffic, as well as from manure run-off.
• Clean up and dispose of feed spills around storage bins and feed tanks to avoid attracting wild birds or rodents.
• Completely clean out all feed storage areas between shipments.
• Feed and equipment delivery points preferably should be located outside the farm’s perimeter.
• Disperse or move feeding areas to prevent congregation in one area for pastured poultry.

• Use controlled water sources if available.
• Do not use ponds as a source of water or to mist poultry due to risk of avian influenza spreading from wild waterfowl to your flock.
• Prevent contamination of water sources from manure or dead animals/birds.
• Prevent animals from standing in the source of drinking water.
• Clean and inspect the water delivery system daily.
• Test well water for chemicals, mineral levels, heavy metals and microorganisms periodically. For commercial farms it is recommended at least once a year or after heavy rains/floods or during severe drought.

• Be aware of current Confined Animal Facility Operation (CAFO) laws and regulations for commercial poultry operations.
• Locate manure storage areas away from flock production areas and prevent run-off into feed or water sources.
• Remove waste, as needed, and transport it with designated equipment to a designated storage or disposal area. Commercial poultry operations must follow approved manure management plans.
• A void spreading poultry manure next to other confined poultry housing.

• Develop a written pest control program, including a regular service schedule.
• Follow directions on baiting chemicals and place where resident birds and farm pets do not have access.
• Rodents (mice, rats) – seal potential entry points in buildings to prevent rodent access. Eliminate piles of wood and debris that could serve as rodent hiding places near poultry houses.
• Insects (flies, darkling beetles, mosquitoes) – focus control measures on manure, waste feed, ponds and other areas which are their breeding grounds.

• Wildlife (wild birds, raccoons, opossums, skunks, deer, feral swine) – restrict contact with wild animals using proper fencing, pens or enclosed housing. Do not allow wild birds to nest in or around poultry facilities.

• Hunters should keep dead game away from their resident birds.

• Keep pets out of bird production sites, as they can spread disease too!

• Immediately dispose of all dead birds in an approved manner (such as burial, incineration, composting, rendering, or landfill).
• Commercial poultry operations must dispose of dead animals using an approved method or site, as specified in the producer’s permitted Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan or Animal Facilities Management Plan. This management plan must provide both a normal (daily) and a catastrophic mortality disposal/ treatment method. A catastrophic plan must be in place for a disease or natural event in which the mortality rate is higher than normal or more than the daily mortality plan options can handle. Arrange an inspection of non-confined facilities (range animals) to pre-approve mass animal burial sites.
• Submit your bird for post mortem examination to a diagnostic laboratory or have your veterinarian do one on-farm to determine cause of death.
• Provide a secure pick up site away from public observation where dead stock/renderer vehicles do not have to enter or come near poultry housing.

Poultry exhibitions should be avoided if possible, or follow the below steps to reduce bringing diseases back to your farm.

Before the event

• Examine birds before leaving for the event to make sure birds are healthy.
• Clean and disinfect all equipment before it is taken to the event and prior to being returned after the event.

At the event

• Limit contact between humans and birds and between the different groups of birds.
• Cover feed and equipment to reduce contamination.
• Do not share equipment unless cleaned and disinfected between users.

After the event

• Change all clothing before returning home.
• Discard any leftover feed and bedding.
• Clean and disinfect equipment before loading for home.
• Isolate and monitor birds after returning home (using traffic pattern rules and clothing changes you use for regular isolation areas).