How Janesh Farms uses biosecurity to stave off bird flu

 “We have introduced biosecurity. That is the secret,” Aaron Polycarp Danishilip, the General Manager told Daily Trust, adding that the management could not have been caught unawares, having known much about disease prevention and control. “Joan S. Jeffrey, extension poultry veterinarian at the University of California, Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center, has said “biosecurity is […]

 “We have introduced biosecurity. That is the secret,” Aaron Polycarp Danishilip, the General Manager told Daily Trust, adding that the management could not have been caught unawares, having known much about disease prevention and control.
 “Joan S. Jeffrey, extension poultry veterinarian at the University of California, Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center, has said “biosecurity is a practice designed to prevent the spread of disease onto your farm.
“It is accomplished by maintaining the facility in such a way that there is minimal traffic of biological organisms (viruses, bacteria, rodents, etc.) across its borders. Biosecurity is the cheapest, most effective means of disease control available. No disease prevention programme will work without it,” the extension worker said.
 The major components of this disease prevention and control are isolation, traffic control and proper sanitation.
At Janesh Farms, the management has perfected this practice to the extent that poultry workers, once on the farms, are prohibited from going out, until close of work.
 A visit by this reporter proved the extent to which the management has taken this measure. After screening at the gate, at which point the visitor steps into a facility containing disinfectant, the reporter was handed gloves and other protective gear, and led to a perimeter from where to have discussions with the general manager.
“We don’t have any history of bird flu on the farms. Our narrative is that of the introduction of biosecurity, a strict measure which entails stages of disinfection and other forms of protection right from our gates, to the poultry houses,” Danishilip said. “We deployed this measure of prevention at a cost, but it is very necessary so that we don’t have to spend to run down this huge investment rated among the three biggest farms in the state.”
The main gate also has the construction containing the disinfectant, deep enough to wash up tyres of vehicles that drive into the poultry. This construction is simply called “dip.”
Also, the farms use plastic crates only for eggs to allow for proper disinfection after the eggs are transferred and the crates brought to the farms by customers.
He demonstrated the transfer of eggs from the customer’s crate to the farms’ plastic egg crates.
 “So you see, there is contact already with the crates coming in from outside of the farms. So what we do is to disinfect our crates immediately and pack them up in the stores,” he said.  
 All of these are part of the overall traffic control, and proper sanitation measures.
 The general manager said as part of the isolation measures, the farms decided to discontinue the purchase of day-old chicks in November of 2014 when the outbreak of the disease became rampant across the country. He said even after the poultry exhausted stock, it was pertinent that the management avoided taking chicks from any hatchery until after a thorough search for a reputable hatchery.