Quantitative assessment of biosecurity in broiler farms using Biocheck.UGent in Central Luzon, Philippines.

The biosecurity status of 397 broiler farms in Central Luzon, the highest poultry meat-producing region in the Philippines, was assessed using Biocheck.Ugent. This online biosecurity assessment tool quantifies biosecurity level or compliance of surveyed farms. The system generates scores that reflect the current biosecurity status of each farm in terms of the different external and internal biosecurity measures being implemented in each farm. It was initially developed for pigs and broilers but recently is available for layers, swine, and cattle (beef, dairy, and veal). The overall biosecurity score of broiler farms in Central Luzon was 71.2%, with average external and internal biosecurity scores of 68.5 and 77.2%, respectively. Bataan had the highest biosecurity scores (76.5%) compared with the other 6 provinces. This was also true for the external and internal biosecurity scores of the province, with mean scores of 72.1 and 80.1%, respectively. Of the 11 subcategories of external and internal biosecurity that were assessed, purchase of day-old chicks, feeds and water supply, supply of materials, cleaning and disinfection, and materials between compartments had scores higher than the global scores. Low scores were generated from transport of live animals and infrastructure and biological vectors. The mean biosecurity score of farms with traditional/conventional type of housing was 7.8% lower than that with tunnel vent housing. Every year as the farm gets older, there was a corresponding drop of 0.2% in the biosecurity score. Biosecurity measures are in place in broiler farms in the country. However, there were areas with low scores which need to be prioritized to improve and upgrade the farms' biosecurity status. To date, this is the first quantitative assessment of biosecurity in broiler farms in the Philippines. High biosecurity scores may entail greater protection from disease incursion.

Biosecurity assessment of layer farms in Central Luzon, Philippines.

Biosecurity assessment in poultry farms is important for disease prevention and control. When specific biosecurity measures are assessed, they become more useful if they are quantified. While there are qualitative means to assess biosecurity, specific improvements can be implemented easily when compliance to biosecurity measures are quantified. To quantify biosecurity measures in 124 layer farms in Central Luzon, a survey was carried out using a modified Biocheck.UGent biosecurity scoring system. The study revealed that external and internal biosecurity scores among layer farms in Central Luzon were widely spread out suggesting that compliance to various biosecurity measures differed from farm to farm. This further suggests that layer farms need to improve their biosecurity practices. The overall biosecurity score of layer farms in the region is 65.9 % while the total regional scores for external and internal biosecurity are 63.3 % and 71.9 %, respectively. Bulacan had the highest overall biosecurity across provinces which was followed by Bataan. The two highest mean external biosecurity scores were those of the subcategories, supply of materials (mean = 87.1) and purchase of pullets (mean = 83.7) while the lowest was that of the category, transport of animals (mean = 50.6). In the internal biosecurity category, materials and measures between compartments had the highest mean score. Low to negligible correlations between external and internal biosecurity were seen among layer farms except for the province of Tarlac. This suggests that a farm with low external biosecurity score also had low internal biosecurity score while high external biosecurity score was equated to high internal biosecurity score. Analysis also showed that large commercials farms had biosecurity ratings that were 6.84 higher compared to small commercial farms. Results of this study may be beneficial for farmers to make necessary improvement to increase level of compliance to biosecurity measures. Policies to impose, implement and monitor compliance may also be instituted.