Aviaries must be always clean to ensure the poultry health and production quality. It is also necessary to stay alert to clean tools and clothes used by who is in direct contact with the poultry to avoid that pathogenic microorganisms spread in the place where they the production is raised.
But is there a right way to clean the poultry aviary? Absolutely! You can’t just realize a dry cleaning followed by a wet cleaning. It is also needed that you focus your efforts into making sure a good disinfection – which is the phase that has the objective to eliminate invisible microorganisms, that can harm the animals’ health and jeopardize a production. Read more:
Who runs a poultry aviary must be keen to the steps that ensure that the place is well-cleaned and the birds are disease-free. The cleaning process should have the following phases:
All those steps are fundamental to ensure that the aviary is really clean and disease-free. On cleaning, the larger residues are taken out. For this, sweepings could be made with the goal of removing apparent dirt in the environment. After, it is necessary to use detergents to assist in stain and dirt removal and that weren’t taken off the dry cleaning.
Then, rinsing is applied to the place, to remove the loose dirt that still are in the environment and the detergent used on removing that dirt. Following that, it is needed to disinfect the place – where the microorganisms that transmit diseases are eliminated.
It is very important that all those steps are made with attention and care. If the dry cleaning wasn’t done properly, for instance, or if there wasn’t an adequate detergent (which may vary from the type of dirt or surface), the disinfection isn’t going to be very efficient, since the dirt may protect the microrganism from the disinfectant.
It is also mandatory to emphasize that, besides the places where the poultry is, it is also needed to clean the people that work with the animals (hands, clothes and boots), the used tools (such as drinkers and feeders) and water reservoirs. Also it is crucial to keep a strict control of who goes in and out of the aviary, to avoid that visitors bring pathogenic microrganisms who could compromise the local hygiene.
All those cleaning phases are important to ensure a healthy aviary, that provide quality products. That includes disinfection, a process made with specific products – that must be approved to be used in agriculture – and powerful to wipe out microrganisms that cause diseases.
If dry and wet cleaning are important to eliminate the apparent organic material in the environment, disinfection is essential to remove microrganisms that transmit diseases and represent risks to the birds. Salmonella is an example of disease that can be avoided with disinfection.
Another disease caused by pathogenic microrganisms is Colibacillosis. The causative agent of this illness, that can be fatal to the poultry, can survive for a while in the environment, but is easily eliminated with the usage of disinfectants.
It is worthy of note that all area must be cleaned and disinfected: not only floors, but also walls, curtains and pens.
Which are the procedures involved in your aviary cleaning? Share in the comments!
