WHAT IS BIOSECURITY?

What is Biosecurity?

Biosecurity is a practice designed to prevent the spread of diseases onto the farm. It is accomplished by maintaining the facility in such a way that there is minimal traffic and biological organisms( viruses, bacteria, rodents, etc) across its borders. Biosecurity is the cheapest, most effective means of disease control available. No disease prevention program will work without it.

Microbes produce emergency and common diseases which are invisible except when viewed under modern microscope. Also, high fecundity of microbes results in a no. of greater than no. of people on earth. These are actually our enemies, which cause epidemics on poultry farms, public alarm cancellation of shows and sales, and long expensive quarantines, resulting in severe personal and financial losses. Common diseases such as fowl cholera, laryngotracheitis, mycoplasmosis, paratyphoid infection and others can also cause problems and exact their price on poultry such as; slower growth, lower egg production rates, reduced product quality and lower customer satisfaction. Fowl cholera and laryngotracheitis germs can cause 10-20% or more of the death rate in birds. Mycoplasmosis has been known to share 30-50% of net layer flock profits. Paratyphoid infections(salmonellosis) erode public confidence in poultry and other animal food products.

Component of Biosecurity

 Basically, biosecurity has 3 major components as,

1.     Isolation

2.     Traffic control

3.     Sanitation

Isolation ;

               Isolation refers to the confinement of poultry birds within a controlled environment. A fence keeps the birds in but it also keeps other animals out. It also applies to the practice of separating birds by age group. In large poultry operation, all in/all out management style allow simultaneous depopulation of facilities both flocks and allow time for periodic clean up and disinfection to break the cycle of disease.

Traffic control

                  It includes both traffic on to the farm and traffic patterns within the farm. Bio-security generally requires human traffic control, such as locking the doors and banning all visitors, or allowing entry to certain authorized and necessary personnel only after they have put on properly sanitized footwear, coveralls and head-gears. Human hands may spread infection and should be sanitized before anyone enters a poultry building or leaves the farm.

Traffic control is needed not only for humans but for animals such as rats, mice, wild birds and predators. Cats that have access to premises where birds are kept are sometimes regarded as potential disease carriers. We have yet to invent a rodenticide that will do a better job than a good, dedicated cat.

Sanitation

         Sanitation addresses the distinction of materials, people and equipments entering the farm and cleanliness of the personnel on the farm.

How microbes travel?

Infectious diseases can be spread from farm to farm by

Ø  Introduction of diseased birds

Ø  Introduction of healthy birds who have recovered from disease but are now carriers

Ø  Shoes and clothing of visitors or caretakers who move from flock to flock

Ø  Contact with inanimate objects(farnites) that are contaminated with disease organisms

Ø  Carcasses of dead birds that havenot been disposed off properly

Ø  Impure water such as surface drainage water

Ø  Rodents, wild animals and free flying birds

Ø  Insects

Ø  Contaminated feed and feed bags

Ø  Contaminated delivery trucks rendering trucks, live hauling trucks

Ø  Contaminated  premises through soil or old litter

Ø  Air borne fornites

Ø  Egg transmission

How to enforce biosecurity?

ü  to avoid bringing disease to poultry, change into fresh, clean coveralls, hats and boots when visiting a farm or moving from one farm to another. Equipments used on farms should be cleaned, washed and disinfected before it is used on another farm.

ü  To get rid of germs, through house cleaning, followed by vigorous washing, often is more important than disinfectant you use.

ü  Broken or unused equipments and furnishings, dust on fans, inlets and ceiling, beams, tiny pieces of debris, cracks and joints in boards and dried films of body fluids all provide places for microbes to hide from effects of a disinfectants

ü  Scrub brushes, pressure sprayers, orderliness and a lack of clutter are your power punches in your bout with germs. Use disinfectants for the final knockout punch to kill stragglers. Also, vaccination and flock profiling can be adapted as biosecurity.

Invisible killers of poultry

Diseases	Health effects on poultry	Life span away from birds
Bursal disease	Lowered resistance to other diseases	Months
Coccidiosis	Diarrhea, death	Months
Duck plague	Diarrhea, death	Days
Fowl cholera	Fatal pneumonia	Weeks
Fowl coryza	Swelling around eyes, colds	Hours to days
Influenza	Severe fever, death	Days to week
Laryngotracheitis	Choking	Days
Marek’s disease	Wasting, paralysis	Weeks
New castle	Colds, paralysis	Days to weeks
Mycoplasmosis	Fewer eggs, poor growth	Hours to days
Salmonellosis	Death soon after hatching	Weeks
Avian tuberculosis	Fatal wasting	Years

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