A self-assessment tool to improve poultry farm biosecurity regarding avian influenza

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) poses an important threat to poultry farming and the whole value chain. Since biosecurity is a major strategy to reduce the risk of HPAI virus introduction into farms and poultry flocks, a self-assessment tool for farmers concerning their farm-specific biosec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche Wochenschrift Vol. 133
Main Authors:	B Grabkowsky, F Conraths, A Globig, A Wilke, N Denzin
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English German
Published:	Schlütersche Fachmedien GmbH 01-08-2020
Subjects:	biosecurity Delphi method HPAI online-tool poultry risk assessment
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) poses an important threat to poultry farming and the whole value chain. Since biosecurity is a major strategy to reduce the risk of HPAI virus introduction into farms and poultry flocks, a self-assessment tool for farmers concerning their farm-specific biosecurity management was developed. It is based on a questionnaire referring to risk factors retrieved from the literature or elaborated by experts, respectively. The risk factors are related to farm-, biosecurity- and animal health-management. Their epidemiological relevance is expressed through weights that were determined by an expert panel in a two-stage Delphi approach. The overall risk of a farm is estimated as the complementary to the percentage compliance with the measures assuring a maximum biosecurity as represented by the compiled questions and their respective weights. The tool is offered as a free of charge, open-access web - based tool, the so-called AI-Risikoampel (AI-Risk Traffic Light), an online anonymous risk-check, which does not only allow to elicit farm-specific optimization potentials concerning biosecurity, but also generates a farm-specific to-do list with tasks ranked according to relevance. Biosecurity gaps may thus be closed by the farmer, possibly also in cooperation with a veterinarian or consultant. The to-date experience concerning the acceptance of the tool and the user statistics are presented.
ISSN:	1439-0299
DOI:	10.2376/1439-0299-2020-17