Managing feed biosecurity in hatchcare

Carla van der Pol, MSc

Maintaining the highest possible biosecurity is an important challenge in any poultry operation. Contamination of the feed can lead to health issues in the chickens themselves, and may threaten the human customer after consumption of poultry meat or eggs. The main threats to animal feed quality are fungi such as Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium species and bacteria such as Salmonella and Clostridium serotypes (Maciorowski et al., 2007). Fungi in feed can produce mycotoxins, which can have a variety of effects: for example, they can be carcinogenic, hormone disruptive, immunosuppressive, or they may affect the nervous system. Presence of Salmonella in the feed can infect the animal, and consumption of an infected poultry products may lead to food poisoning in humans.