Any type of poultry production runs into the risk of acquiring diseases that disrupts production, damages your investment, and has a negative impact to your livelihood. The scope of past disease outbreaks demonstrated that the biosecurity of poultry facilities needs to be strengthened to reduce the risk of future infections as much as possible.

To assist poultry producers in implementing effective biosecurity plans, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) worked with State, academic, and industry experts to develop this biosecurity checklist.

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Spotlight on Biosecurity
Diseases like highly pathogenic avian influenza can reach beyond the commercial poultry industry, impacting backyard and hobby flocks as well. Large disease outbreaks like the HPAI outbreak in 2014-2015 can even affect consumer prices and product availability. It is important that anyone who has contact with poultry should follow some basic biosecurity practices to help protect their birds.

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Biosecurity Self-Assessment
Biosecurity approaches fall into two categories. Structural biosecurity is built into the physical construction and maintenance of a facility. Operational biosecurity encompasses the standard operating procedures (SOPs) that minimize the chance of virus entering the poultry house and compliance with those SOPs. Over the long term, poultry producers will need to consider both operational and structural biosecurity to reduce their overall risk of disease.

This document emphasizes the elements for improving biosecurity that are believed to be the most effective. Based on expert opinion and experience, the highest risks for the introduction and spread of disease are personnel who enter the poultry buildings, shared equipment and shared crews, procedures for disposal of dead birds, and manure management. These elements should be the highest priority in allocating resources for improved biosecurity. Further, three concepts may be new to most existing biosecurity plans and should be strongly considered for all commercial operations: a biosecurity coordinator, a line of separation for each building, and a perimeter buffer area.

APHIS recommends producers to develop a site-specific plan to implement enhanced operational biosecurity as soon as feasible. In addition, effective biosecurity requires vigilance; producers should put a system in place to verify that biosecurity enhancements are being followed. Lastly, this checklist assumes that infections are limited to animals. Special precautions will be needed if the virus mutates to affect people.

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Wild Birds, Rodents, and Insects

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Mortality Disposal

Any poultry operation may encounter routine mortality. Adequate removal and disposal of mortality is required to ensure the health of a poultry flock.

CAST Poultry Carcass Disposal
Carcass disposal remains one of the major problems facing poultry meat and egg producers. As in all types of food-animal production, some poultry die at the farm level and must be disposed of in a safe and environmentally sound manner.

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Use of Composting for the Disposal of Dead Animals
Recent high-profile disease outbreaks in the United Kingdom (UK), North America and Australia have focussed the attention of biosecurity agencies on finding alternatives to rendering, on-farm burial, sanitary landfilling and pyre burning for carcass disposal in future outbreaks of emergency animal diseases. Composting of farm animal mortalities is one possible alternative as it appears to meet the biosecurity, environmental, and public health objectives of safe carcass disposal.

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Reporting of Elevated Morbidity or Mortality

A disease outbreak requires prompt response and one of the most important steps to eliminate a mayor disease outbreak may require the elimination of poultry flocks. Here you'll find resources that demonstrate how to properly eliminate and dispose of a diseased flock.

CAST Poultry Carcass Disposal
Carcass disposal remains one of the major problems facing poultry meat and egg producers. As in all types of food-animal production, some poultry die at the farm level and must be disposed of in a safe and environmentally sound manner.

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Mortality Management Options During an Avian Influenza Outbreak
Mortality management practices have pros and cons and should be carefully considered, based on the situation at hand. Site assessment, biosecurity, severity of outbreak and available resources are key elements that influence the decision-making process when selecting the most appropriate option.

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Poultry Mass Mortality Composting Options
Every farm needs a mass mortality plan! Select a composting option that matches the nature and extent of losses, resources available and farm situation.

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