Current situation assessment of biosecurity measures of some poultry sectors and hatcheries in Egypt

Abstract

> Preventing the transmission of disease into and between poultry farms, hatcheries, andfrom wildlife, or their droppings, is essential to maintain healthy productive poultry flocks.This study was designed to assess the current situation of biosecurity measures in 3 typesof poultry operations; 125 small-scale commercial broiler farms (sector III), hobby poultrypremises (backyards; sector IV) and hatcheries selected from Giza, Fayoum and Beni-Suefprovince, Egypt. A structured questionnaire survey, interviews and observation were usedto collect data on farm characterization, bio-security practices and disease preventivemeasures in sectors and hatcheries. The respondents were farm owners, farm managers,veterinarians, and workers. It has been found that the distance between small commercialbroiler farms were 48.4% [2- 5 km] while for hobby poultry keepers 66.5% [≤100 m], andhatcheries 41.6% [1-3 km] and 30.6% [7-11 km]. In small-scale broiler farms practiced allin/ all out system (89 %) as compared to hatcheries and backyards (83.3 and 46.1 %,respectively). In the most of the small commercial broiler farms, the resting periodbetween production cycles was higher on 4-7 days (32.5%). Methods most used fordisposal of daily mortalities were on landfill (45.2%) among small commercial broilerfarms. Meanwhile, hobby poultry premises and hatcheries included disposal in watercanals (38.5 and 33.3%, respectively). On the other hand, Hobby poultry keepers reportedthat veterinarians rarely inspected their premises. Mortality rate/cycle was (11.9%) inalmost broiler farms. About 64.3 % of the small commercial producers practiced all therecommended vaccination of their birds against highly pathogenic diseases. In conclusion,the majority of the small-scale broiler farms and all most backyards were far from theimplementation of biosecurity measures. Biosecurity situation needs a combined effortfrom stakeholders, poultry keeper of hobby birds (backyard) to improve biosecurity levelfor those sectors.