[Anne-Christine Lefort]

Which do you consider the most important biosecurity measures to prevent the introduction of Avian Influenza virus in a poultry farm?

[Francesco Galuppo]

An outbreak of AI could be primary (directly from the environment/wild animals) or secondary (from another outbreak) and we must start from here. So, it means that, by one side, it could be effective to avoid any direct or indirect contact of the poultry with wild animals, as, by the other side it could be effective to avoid any direct or indirect contact with other poultry farms. To go more into details I consider that to close poultry into the barn in cases of free range poultry farm, to use antibirds net on the window of the house, to mantein the doors/gates of the barn all time closed, to use properly the farm and the house hygiene lock, to limit the movements into the farm of any trucks or any other means of transport, strictly permitting the access when really necessary and only after an appropriate disinfection at the entrance, are very important measures to adopt. In addition I consider very important also to limit the access of any kind of visitors (vets, technicians, others).

[Anne-Christine Lefort]

Thanks Francesco. To your experience, what are the less implemented practices, and what is the most efficient way to convince the farmer to implement them ?

[Francesco Galuppo]

You are welcome Anne Christine. Probably the less implemented practices are the proper use of the farm and of the house hygiene lock, but to convince the farmer to implement them is really not easy. If they have never tryed AI (or any other severe disease) they are in trouble to understand what is correct to do and why. Of course we always try to explain them the reasons for which they must follow certain rules, but sometimes, if they don’t touch directly the problem they don’t really understand that some measures are effective. This point is also part of the control of the movements of the visitors and of course the strict restriction to access the farm for any kind of visitors is very important.

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