• Livestock

CREATION OF SANITARY BARRIERSBARRIERS, VISIT RESTRICTIONS AND CONTROLS

The BroilerNet project involves a bottom-up approach to identify challenges and innovation needs for broiler farmers in Europe, and to collect promising and already successfully implemented Good Practices to meet the challenges in questions. The top Good Practices selected by experts within the three thematic areas (animal health management, animal welfare and sustainability) have been summarized in factsheets. The creation of sanitary barriers through the implementation of changing rooms and the restriction of visits, limiting these to the strictly essential, and carrying out arigorous visitor control and registration, proves to be a fundamental pillar for the biosecurity of poultry farms. The adoption of these measures involves the installation of physical barriers (nets and gates) and the installation of changing rooms capable of acting as sanitary filters. All visitors, prior to entering the sheds, must take a shower and wear appropriate clothing provided by the farm. Adapting a barn to these procedures, involves physical investments but also investments on adequate training and awareness of staff. These measures make it possible to substantially reduce the risks of contamination and disease transmissiontransmission,and consequently reduce animal suffering and increase economic benefits as a result of the reduction of health risks and contingency interventions.