Biosecurity practices on Australian commercial layer and meat chicken farms: Performance and perceptions of farmers

PLoS One. 2018 Apr 18;13(4):e0195582. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195582. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

This paper describes the level of adoption of biosecurity practices performed on Australian commercial chicken meat and layer farms and farmer-perceived importance of these practices. On-farm interviews were conducted on 25 free range layer farms, nine cage layer farms, nine barn layer farms, six free range meat chicken farms and 15 barn meat chicken farms in the Sydney basin bioregion and South East Queensland. There was a high level of treatment of drinking water across all farm types; town water was the most common source. In general, meat chicken farms had a higher level of adoption of biosecurity practices than layer farms. Cage layer farms had the shortest median distance between sheds (7.75m) and between sheds and waterbodies (30m). Equipment sharing between sheds was performed on 43% of free range meat chicken farms compared to 92% of free range layer farms. There was little disinfection of this shared equipment across all farm types. Footbaths and visitor recording books were used by the majority of farms for all farm types except cage layer farms (25%). Wild birds in sheds were most commonly reported in free range meat chicken farms (73%). Dogs and cats were kept across all farm types, from 56% of barn layer farms to 89% of cage layer farms, and they had access to the sheds in the majority (67%) of cage layer farms and on the range in some free range layer farms (44%). Most biosecurity practices were rated on average as 'very important' by farmers. A logistic regression analysis revealed that for most biosecurity practices, performing a practice was significantly associated with higher perceived farmer importance of that biosecurity practice. These findings help identify farm types and certain biosecurity practices with low adoption levels. This information can aid decision-making on efforts used to improve adoption levels.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animal Husbandry
  • Animals
  • Animals, Wild
  • Australia
  • Birds
  • Chickens*
  • Containment of Biohazards / methods*
  • Disinfection
  • Drinking Water
  • Farmers*
  • Farms* / organization & administration
  • Farms* / statistics & numerical data
  • Mammals
  • Poultry Diseases / etiology
  • Rodent Control
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

Substances

  • Drinking Water

Grants and funding

This research was conducted within the Poultry Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) (http://www.chicken.org.au/page.php?id=26) that provided the majority of funding with support from the CRC and Woolworths Limited (https://www.woolworths.com.au/). The first author, ABS, is also a recipient of a Post-graduate Scholarship and stipend from the Poultry CRC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.