Cleaning and Biosecurity

If you are an owner of a few birds or a small garden flock and need advice on cleaning go to Small Flock Cleaning.

For Larger flocks please read on.

Large Flocks

A closed flock in a clean environment is the ideal situation for the cleanest environments but in many situations this is difficult to achieve. Buying in disease free birds can be difficult as some conditions take time to develop eg Mareks and others produce clinical signs when the birds are stressed (eg by travelling).

In order to keep your flock healthy you should consider carrying out some routine laboratory tests and always isolate new stock for as long as possible and preferably at least 2 weeks before adding to your main flock.

With all cleaning products you should wear protective clothing such as disposable gloves and eye protection if required by the product. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions and do not allow children access to products.

There are many cleaning products available but the simplest plan is:

• Remove all organic material and brush down building
• Clean the building with a good quality detergent and allow to dry. You would not clean a dinner plate without soap, so why clean a chicken shed with plain water?
• Disinfect using a broad spectrum antiviral disinfectant at the correct dose rate
• If your birds have had coccidiosis diagnosed, or you have seen evidence of loose droppings or wet bedding use an anti cocciddial type disinfectant
• If you want to check your level of cleaning take samples for bacterial counts
• If you have suffered from red mite in your birds you should take this opportunity of spraying the house with an anti red mite product and disinfecting
• Once the buildings are clean you might need to prevent disease entry on boots. This is especially important with small chicks on the same site as older birds where Mareks disease and other conditions might spread easily between age groups. A foot dip outside the building is effective as long as the boots are not heavily covered in organic material. Foot dips should be covered so as not to be diluted with rain water and changed regularly. Where there is high organic material use a phenolic type disinfectant. If you prefer to have a non phenolic product due to smell or taint then use Rhodasept
• Hatching chicks requires an extra level of cleanliness especially in the handling of eggs and cleaning of hatchers. Washing eggs is not necessary unless they are very dirty and then only with a freshly made up liquid with disinfectant otherwise the dirty water simply crosses into the egg and leads to bacterial contamination. We recommend the use of Bio egg wash as an egg cleaner and BioVX for cleaning equipment. For a mild cleaning liquid you can use Chlorine tablets
• Water is the most common route of infection into a poultry unit and should always be clean and readily available. All water supply equipment should be clean and when the building is emptied you should wash the equipment using a QUAT detergent and disinfect with a product.
• The water should be kept clean and changed regularly. If a non mains water supply is used you can clean the drinker lines with the use of various products in the header tank such as IH Aquades or Aqua-clean. Alternatively you can add chlorine to the header tank on a regular basis . We recommend Credence tablets on a weekly basis where there is a defined supply header tank to the chicken. Always check dose levels and make sure that the birds are still drinking the water. Chickens will drink water with a dose of chlorine at about 2ppm with no problems.
• Water acidification is used on some larger units to provide continual clean water and adjust the gut microflora. This requires controlled dosing and monitoring pH. In most small flocks this is unnecessary however dosing pumps can be supplied please call our helpline and we can give you the necessary advice.

Small Flocks

• Always wash with a detergent. This can be as simple as a domestic washing up liquid or preferably use Poultry Shield RTU which will also have an anti red mite affect. Cleaning and removal of organic material is very important and in some low disease situations is all that is needed.
• After the shed is clean , let it dry
• When dry apply Rhodasept to the structure in the form of a spray.
• Allow to dry and restock the coop

*Calling the Chicken Vet helpline

Calls to 0905 187 0000 will be charged at 77ppm from BT lines, other networks may vary and mobile operators may charge considerably more.