Avian Influenza Biosecurity For Bird Owners

Bird owners should be alert to the symptoms of avian influenza and report any concerns immediately to:

  • Disease Watch (24 hour) Hotline on 1800 675 888
  • Local PIRSA Animal Health or veterinary officer.

Commercial poultry

Commercial poultry producers are encouraged to maintain a high level of biosecurity on their properties. Producers generally have good biosecurity measures in place, including:

  • maintaining a high level of security for all traffic coming onto poultry farms and a very high standard of hygiene to minimise spread of the disease
  • bird-proofing of poultry sheds to prevent contact between wild birds, especially wild waterbirds, and poultry
  • keeping records and reporting sudden decreases in production
  • ensuring all sick, diseased or dead birds are checked by an experienced veterinarian and ensure that samples are submitted to a veterinary laboratory.

The 'Code of Practice for Biosecurity in the Egg Industry' has been developed to assist industry in understanding biosecurity issues so that plans can be developed to minimise the chance of an outbreak and the impact of disease. Producers are encouraged to contact their industry representative to obtain a copy or alternatively you can download the report from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation website.

What can domestic bird owners do to minimise the risk of avian influenza?

All bird owners need to be vigilant, including owners of backyard poultry or free-range poultry.

Bird owners need to implement biosecurity measures to prevent wild birds gaining access to the same food and water supplies as poultry:

  • Fit nets to poultry sheds to keep wild birds out.
  • Erect pens to keep domesticated poultry away from wild birds.
  • Keep domestic waterfowl separate from poultry where the waterfowl have access to the same water as wild waterbirds.
  • Prevent domesticated poultry from having access to open ponds, lakes or creeks or other watercourses.
  • Keep wild birds off farm dams with netting or other measures where practical.

Contaminated water (i.e. water that wild waterbirds have had access to) is one of the most likely routes of infection for poultry. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that water supplied to poultry should be:

  • from a mains water supply
  • from a bore that produces water of sufficient quality for poultry
  • treated by chlorination if mains water is not available.

Surface water if used should be chlorinated to achieve a level of 1-2 ppm before the water is used (treated water must stand for a holding time of 2 hours before the water is supplied to poultry and must be filtered to remove sediments that would deactivate the chlorine).

Aviary birds, caged birds and back yard birds are at negligible risk of infection if owners use simple biosecurity measures such as preventing them mixing with wild birds and protecting their feed and water from faecal contamination by wild birds.

Purchase animals of a known health status

  • Isolate purchased animals
  • Restrict visitors
  • Use good personal and farm hygiene – think clean
  • Maintain facilities
  • All in – all out (replace all birds at the same time)

The information on this page was sourced from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries www.dpi.vic.gov.au