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Having a robust turnaround schedule in place that uses the correct product, applied in the correct way, is the foundation to good performance. The opportunity to clean the house effectively at turnaround should not be missed and should be properly controlled. It should also be assessed with audits and TVC swabs.
If a challenging microbial population of pathogens is left on site and by not choosing well, there is an increased risk to the farm’s future profit. Ultimately there is always a balance between the rime available, the cost of the programme and the financial return.
However, the greater investment in ensuring your new flock is housed in a clean, sterile, mite and worm-egg free environment, the great the chance the flock will go on to perform well. Performance of a laying flock is reliant on many factors; the stress of disease challenge is a key factor and could be the deciding factor.
Over recent years there has been a move to only dry clean houses, with the possible late addition of some disinfectants onto what is basically a very soiled surface. This has slowly led to poor performance, poor peaks and some increased mortality with E. coli, which can be difficult to get back under control once established.
Often, following poor cleaning, the levels of red mite on many sites remains too high and subsequent flocks become infected early on as they are under stress coming into lay, leading to more E.coli leakage from the intestine and more mortality. The problem goes on and everyone is stressed.
The recommendations below are based around the products and combinations that we believe are best suited to various microbial loads in a shed.
As a start to all programmes, you need to be sure that the detergent you use on the equipment and building is heavy-duty, high foaming and cleans well. Disinfectants in general reduce the bacterial levels but do not make the surface sterile. Therefore, the better the preparation through the detergent used, the more effective the disinfectant.
The choice of disinfectant is sometimes based non-scientific reasoning, such as price, ease of collection, ease of removal of empty drums and even, “I like the supplier”. Careful consideration is required for the system you use for the one big opportunity to set the new crop up well. Any disinfectant used by a farm should be Defra approved. Looking at the Defra trial work, the two standout products that are currently available are Interkokask and Intercid.
Intercid is comprised of Glutaraldehyde and Formaldehyde which are particularly effective against Salmonella when used at the correct rate. Many ‘anti-coccidiosis’ disinfectants are Defra approved against poultry bacterial and viral pathogens; however, many have no Defra (or equivalent) approval specifically for coccidiosis. Interkokask is one of the few approved anti-coccidiosis disinfectants. Always ensure any anticoccidial disinfectant has approval specifically for coccidiosis.
Litter beetles are an important reservoir of disease. No matter how well a shed is cleaned and disinfected, if litter beetles survive then they will carry many diseases for more than two weeks. For most farms a two-week turnaround is neither possible nor financially viable. Beetle traps are an excellent way of monitoring beetle numbers and there are many insecticidal products available such as CBM8.
Water lines need to be emptied and flushed using either Aqua-clean, if the pump system can be set to at least 3%, or Huwa-San if only 1% dosing is possible.
The drinker line should be emptied onto the cleaned floor and then left empty until the day prior to fill. If there is a plan to keep water in the line, then after cleaning the shed the line needs to be disinfected again. Even if there is an in-crop water sanitising system in place we would also recommend the use of one of these products. We have tested them compared to others on the market and consider them to be superior. A fully automated Chlorine Dioxide system from, for example, FarmWater Ltd comes at a higher capital cost however the payback is much lower chemical costs compared to Hydrogen Peroxide. The type of system you use needs careful consideration, and a site survey is the first step to defining a water hygiene plan.
Using a terminal application of formalin has been used successfully for decades and is cost effective. Yet, it has major health issues and so there has been a move to hot fogging with Halamid as an alternative option that has proven very effective.
An effective turnaround consists of the following steps:
Take a look at the full Poultry Pharm range of products for biosecurity, cleaning and disinfection for use with poultry and game birds.