The objective of any poultry operation is to be productive. This can only be achieved with healthy flocks, whether these produce meat or eggs. A clean farm with a comprehensive biosecurity program is a prerequisite for achieving that goal. Stick to the rules for cleanness, starting at the gate already!
It is well known that poultry is highly susceptible to diseases. If an infection arises, it never is limited to one single bird, but will hit the entire flock. A dreaded example is highly contagious avian flu, officially named avian influenza, which strikes the poultry business across the globe time and time again.
An outbreak of avian flu or any other contagious disease can happen quite easily. Some of these have a period to survive of just hours to days, other may last much longer, up to even months.
An infectious and specifically zoonotic disease is not just harming poultry. It may also seriously impact human health. After all, poultry and poultry products end up in the food chain and thus may seriously impact the health status of food products from this origin.
In the event of a highly contagious disease, there is no alternative but culling flocks and taking measures to get the disease under control again. This usually happens.
Such a measure, like in The Netherlands, is a ban on transporting poultry and poultry products, initiated by the government, in the area where a disease outbreak had happened.
Preventive measures of course are the best way to prevent such a disease outbreak. That’s not always possible however, as wild birds can be disease transmitters. They may convey an infection through their droppings.
Also there are other transmitters like small animals (rats and mice in particular), who can easily
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