This was the subject of the first discussion moment on the NetPoulSafe forum that took place on january 27th with Dr Mattias Delpont, from Veterinary School of Toulouse/INRAE. Proper hygiene lock use is indeed a critical issue in many farms, as already mentioned in the Disarm H2020 project.
Some questions were asked and discussed about practical tips to set up and use properly the hygiene lock. Participants came from several countries including Belgium, Italy, Spain…
An example of practice that was discussed : Changing clothes and washing hands at each farm building are not always done beacause it’s very time consuming and farmers are not convinced it is useful for them. The ease and comfort of handwashing may be a critical point : knee or foot command for the tap, hot water (which however requires higher investment costs), location of the sink inside the hygiene lock.
In hygiene locks already equiped with a sink, disinfectant gels could be used after handwash to increase its efficacy.
Dr Delpont gave an interesting canadian reference where the biosecurity breaks in poultry barns are identify and counted unsing cameras.
The interest, advantages and disavantages of footbathes were also discussed.
To discover more points of the discussion, you can go to the forum : the discussion is now closed but it stays available to reading here.
Some other concerns were raised and may be some future subjects, like biosecurity management in outdoor farms.
Next discussion moment will take place in March, stay tuned !