Poultry Service Industry Biosecurity Guide
6. Glossary
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- Adequate level of biosecurity:
- The service personnel must comply with the biosecurity protocols provided by the producer or farm manager. Service providers are responsible for determining what they believe are appropriate biosecurity activities, based on the risk of transmission to and between poultry premises. The level of biosecurity practised is determined by a complex interaction of numerous factors such as the health status of the flocks on the premises; the service activity to be performed; the risk of contact with live birds, manure, and mortality; and the health status of neighbouring flocks and previous flocks visited. .
- Alert situation:
- A condition or period when a poultry disease concern has been identified or is suspected in the poultry sector and which requires heightened service provider awareness and elevated levels of biosecurity for an industry and/or government-defined area..
- Areas:
- Any part of a premises where poultry are kept, not enclosed by a barn but may or may not be enclosed by other physical structures; for example, an open shed or run.
- Barn:
- Any structure that encloses poultry.
- Biosecurity:
- May be defined as a set of practices used to minimize the transmission of pathogens and pests into, within, and from livestock, poultry, and plant populations.
- Clean:
- Free of any visible accumulation of organic matter and debris or other residues.
- Controlled access point (CAP):
- A visually defined entry point(s) through which all traffic – such as workers, equipment, feed trucks – enter the controlled access zone (CAZ) and/or the restricted access zone (RAZ). To carry out specific activities such as catching birds, other points of entry may be used.
- Controlled access zone (CAZ):
- The area of land and buildings constituting the poultry-production area of the premises, including where equipment related to production is stored. It excludes any residences and any other buildings that are not directly related to poultry production (for example, machine sheds, storage sheds, workshops) The CAZ is accessible through a securable CAP.
- Cross-contamination:
- The passage of pathogens indirectly from a person to one point and mechanically transmitted to another point by another person or via fomites, such as clothing, footwear, hair, equipment, etc..
- Direct contact:
- Close physical contact between animals and people, and includes including aerosols.
- DiseaseFootnote 1:
- Any deviation from, or interruption of, the normal structure or function of any body part, organ, or system that is manifested by a characteristic set of symptoms and signs and whose etiology, pathology, and prognosis may be known or unknown.
- Disease response plan:
- A predetermined set of steps that is followed in the case of significant disease occurrence. This response may be at the premises level by the production people, at the regional level or provincial level by industry or provincial ministry, or at the national level for a reportable disease.
- Disinfection:
- The application of a physical or chemical process to a surface for the purpose of destroying or inhibiting the activity of disease-causing micro-organisms.
- Downtime:
- A period between flocks, starting with a barn or flock area being emptied of birds and ending with the placement of new birds. It allows for the natural reduction in numbers of disease-causing micro-organisms within the barn or flock area. Cleaning and disinfection should occur as soon as possible after shipping. The effective period can be reduced by cleaning and disinfecting at the beginning of the period. The recommended downtime in the literature is usually 14 days.
- Enhanced biosecurity:
- At times when a disease outbreak is suspected on the premises or has been identified in the vicinity, extra biosecurity measures may be required and increased emphasis placed on existing biosecurity measures.
- Essential personnel:
- Any persons who are required to enter the RAZ, other than personnel who are concerned with day-to-day poultry production on the premises. Service personnel include veterinarians, service and delivery people, suppliers, and regulators.
- Essential vehicle:
- A vehicle that must enter the CAZ to perform a specific service (for example, egg pickup, feed delivery, bird transport).
- Fomites or mechanical vector:
- Inanimate object or material on which disease-causing agents may be conveyed; for instance, farm equipment, people, insects, footwear, and rodents.
- Indirect contact:
- A secondary contact between animals and people via an inanimate object on which disease may be carried or transferred.
- Infectious disease agents:
- A disease caused by the entrance into the body of organisms (as bacteria, protozoans, fungi, or viruses) which grow and multiply.
- Mechanical transmission:
- A form of disease transmission in which the agent is carried by a vector or fomites, yet is not infected, in that tissues are not invaded and the agent does not multiply.
- Most vulnerable:
- Animals that have the greatest risk for contracting and developing disease from an infectious pathogen or pest. This includes young birds, and recently ill, infected, or medically treated animals, or any animal susceptible to the disease in question.
- Non-essential personnel:
- People and their equipment that do not require access to the CAZ and the RAZ. These include, but are not limited to, neighbours, guests, friends, and family.
- Pests:
- Fungus, insect, nematode, rodent, weed, or other form of terrestrial or aquatic life form that may harm humans or have a negative impact on farm animal health, or that interferes with economic activities such as agriculture.
- Poultry:
- All birds reared or kept in captivity. Including, but not limited to, birds kept for breeding, the production of eggs or meat for consumption, for production of other commercial products, for restocking supplies of game birds, or for breeding these categories of birds.
- Premises (facility):
- A parcel of land with continuous property boundary and defined by a legal description or, in its absence, by georeferenced coordinates, on which, or on any part of which, poultry are grown, kept, assembled, or disposed of.
- Reportable disease:
- A disease that must be immediately reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The disease may be exotic or domestic or, in some cases, mandated by the province as reportable.
- Restricted access zone (RAZ):
- An area inside the CAZ that is used, or intended to be used, to house poultry, including semi-confined and range production and where personnel and equipment access is more restricted than that of the CAZ. Within the RAZ, the unrestricted movement of people, birds, and equipment may occur. The RAZ is sometimes referred to as the "production area" or "restricted area" (RA) in other poultry production documents and guides.
- Sanitize:
- Sanitation often refers to general procedures used to clean hands and inanimate objects to reduce microbial load. Sanitize is often used to distinguish a level of cleaning and decontamination that is less than disinfection. It is a process used to reduce or inactivate pathogens to a level that is considered safe for everyday use or exposure.
- Service area:
- An Area within a poultry production building that separates the CAZ from the RAZ. Some examples of operations in the service may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- anteroom: location for people who work on the premises to perform boot and clothing changes, handwashing, or other personal duties (may also be considered a transition room and part of the RAZ)
- tool storage
- electric paneling
- dry storage
- egg-collection activities
- Service sector:
- Personnel who perform activities on a premises, other than the producer, and routine staff for day-to-day operational activities. This includes, but is not limited to, utility companies, catching crews, feed companies and distributors, animal health professionals, inspectors, etc.
- Storage (carcasses):
- Temporary placement of bird carcasses into a sealable leak-proof container until disposal.
- Target outcome:
- The goal that all service sector personnel (and producers), regardless of the size of flock and type of production, should aim for to protect their flocks and livelihood from the introduction and spread of avian diseases.
- Date modified: