Helping chicken meat producers manage biosecurity

Practising good biosecurity is important for everyone who works or is involved in the Australian chicken meat industry. To ensure that chicken meat producers can protect their businesses from the ongoing risk of entry and spread of pests and diseases, including food safety pathogens, AgriFutures Australia has developed a suite of biosecurity manuals, guides, templates, videos, factsheets and tools for producers that supplement the industry National Farm Biosecurity Manual for Chicken Growers.

The industry-specific manual, updated in May 2020, is based on the generic minimum biosecurity standards for all poultry, adapted to reflect the requirements as they apply specifically to the commercial chicken meat industry. It incorporates new information and is accompanied by templates and guides that businesses can use to record how they manage biosecurity threats.

The chicken meat biosecurity website also includes best-practice industry guides on litter management, water quality management, poultry waste composting and rodent control. These best practice guides are supplemented by training videos and linked to the underpinning research projects.

In addition to the online resources, an interactive webinar dedicated to current biosecurity research was delivered to industry. This webinar attracted over 100 registrations in March 2021 and the recordings have attracted a further 165 views.

All resources available are utilised across the different sectors of the poultry supply chain. Of note are the industry videos that are used by individual companies with their staff and also by registered training organisations when delivering biosecurity training to poultry producers across Australia.