Extension and communication strategies to improve biosecurity

Abstract

Biosecurity is the foundation of commercial egg production, playing a crucial role in safeguarding the industry against the incursion of emergency animal diseases and ensuring food safety. With heightened concerns over disease outbreaks and foodborne illnesses, the implementation of rigorous biosecurity measures is more important than ever.

Biosecurity encompasses a range of practices designed to prevent the introduction and spread of infectious agents, protecting the health of flocks and the quality of eggs produced. Effective biosecurity protocols not only mitigate the risk of diseases such as avian influenza and Salmonella Enteritidis, but also enhance welfare and productivity.

Australia's commercial egg sector includes operations that vary in scale and production systems; from large-scale fully integrated companies to much smaller owner-operator farms, with eggs currently produced in three main production systems: cage, barn and free-range. Regardless of size or system, all producers face similar biosecurity challenges and must implement comprehensive strategies to prevent the introduction and spread of infectious diseases. Due to the diversity of egg producers and production systems, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to communicating and engaging with each sector.

Previous studies have identified how biosecurity is currently managed across the different sectors and production systems of the Australian egg industry. These studies also provided recommendations where consultation with relevant stakeholders, and working with the different segments, is required to develop the most appropriate and applicable communication and extension strategies to target each group.

This project engaged with producers from each of the different segments through a series of online workshops. The purpose of the workshops was to identify how producers from each sector obtain their information regarding biosecurity, ways to engage and further actions to improve knowledge and adoption of biosecurity practices. The extension and communication strategy for each egg sector was developed based on the information discussed during the workshop. While there are some similarities in the approaches that should be taken regarding extension and communication practices to improve biosecurity between the sectors, there is also some differences that reflect how the different sectors engage and like to receive information.

Key themes of training, utilising industry champions to share experiences, developing templates and standard operating procedures and fostering a culture of biosecurity within the workforce and a freely accessible app for online biosecurity management were identified across sectors.

In addition to these strategies, a roadmap of actions is outlined together with a document for planning authorities to assist in understanding key biosecurity considerations when new farms are developed