Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Poultry Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
Poult Sci. 2018 Jan 1;97(1):74-83. doi: 10.3382/ps/pex296.
Good biosecurity procedures are crucial for healthy animal production. The aim of this study was to quantify the level of biosecurity on conventional broiler farms in Europe, following a standardized procedure, thereby trying to identify factors that are amenable to improvement. The current study used a risk-based weighted scoring system (biocheck.ugent ®) to assess the level of biosecurity on 399 conventional broiler farms in 5 EU member states. The scoring system consisted of 2 main categories, namely external and internal biosecurity, which had 8 and 3 subcategories, respectively. Biosecurity was quantified by converting the answers to 97 questions into a score from 0 to 100. The minimum score, "0," represents total absence of any biosecurity measure on the broiler farm, whereas the maximum score, "100," means full application of all investigated biosecurity measures. A possible correlation between biosecurity and farm characteristics was investigated by multivariate linear regression analysis. The participating broiler farms scored better for internal biosecurity (mean score of 76.6) than for external biosecurity (mean 68.4). There was variation between the mean biosecurity scores for the different member states, ranging from 59.8 to 78.0 for external biosecurity and from 63.0 to 85.6 for internal biosecurity. Within the category of external biosecurity, the subcategory related to "infrastructure and vectors" had the highest mean score (82.4), while the subcategory with the lowest score related to biosecurity procedures for "visitors and staff" (mean 51.5). Within the category of internal biosecurity, the subcategory "disease management" had the highest mean score (65.8). In the multivariate regression model a significant negative correlation was found between internal biosecurity and the number of employees and farm size. These findings indicate that there is a lot of variation for external and internal biosecurity on the participating broiler farms, suggesting that improvements are possible. Since the subcategory "visitors and staff" scored the lowest, better education of broiler farmers and their staff may help to improve overall biosecurity on broiler farms in Europe.
良好的生物安全措施对于动物健康生产至关重要。本研究旨在采用标准化程序量化欧洲常规肉鸡养殖场的生物安全水平，从而尝试确定可改进的因素。本研究使用基于风险的加权评分系统（biocheck.ugent ®）评估了 5 个欧盟成员国的 399 个常规肉鸡养殖场的生物安全水平。评分系统由 2 个主要类别组成，分别为外部生物安全和内部生物安全，分别有 8 个和 3 个亚类。通过将 97 个问题的答案转换为 0 到 100 分的分数来量化生物安全性。最低分“0”表示肉鸡养殖场完全没有任何生物安全措施，而最高分“100”表示所有调查的生物安全措施都得到了充分应用。通过多元线性回归分析研究了生物安全性与农场特征之间的可能相关性。参与的肉鸡养殖场在内部生物安全性方面的得分（平均 76.6 分）优于外部生物安全性（平均 68.4 分）。不同成员国之间的平均生物安全评分存在差异，外部生物安全评分范围为 59.8 至 78.0，内部生物安全评分范围为 63.0 至 85.6。在外部生物安全类别中，与“基础设施和媒介”相关的亚类得分最高（82.4），而与“访客和员工”相关的生物安全程序得分最低（平均 51.5）。在内部生物安全类别中，“疾病管理”亚类的平均得分最高（65.8）。在多元回归模型中，内部生物安全与员工人数和农场规模呈显著负相关。这些发现表明，参与的肉鸡养殖场在外部和内部生物安全方面存在很大差异，表明可以进行改进。由于“访客和员工”亚类得分最低，因此加强肉鸡养殖者及其员工的教育可能有助于提高欧洲肉鸡养殖场的整体生物安全性。
