TY - JOUR
T1 - Biosecurity preparedness analysis for poultry large and small farms in the United Arab Emirates
AU - Fathelrahman, Eihab M.
AU - Awad, Adel I.El
AU - Mohamed, Ahmed M.Yousif
AU - Eltahir, Yassir M.
AU - Hassanin, Hussein H.
AU - Mohamed, Mohamed Elfatih
AU - Hoag, Dana L.K.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially funded by the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) Start-up Research Grant # 31F054. The research team is thankful to Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) on offering technical support, and for the authority research committee on the ethical approval for the research. The research team is thankful for Mohamed Al Aidros (Research Assistants at UAEU College of Food & Agriculture) for the technical support they offered.
Funding Information:
Funding: This research was partially funded by the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) Start-up Research Grant # 31F054.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - Biosecurity implemented on the poultry farms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the form of preparedness against any possible outbreak of disease, is critical for farm survival, safety, and development. Little information on the status of biosecurity readiness for containing any outbreak of poultry disease is available. This study was conducted to evaluate the status of biosecurity on commercial poultry farms in the UAE. Four categories of biosecurity measures/actions: isolation, human and traffic flow, cleaning, and disinfection, and adoption of vaccination protocols were considered. All 37 licensed commercial poultry farms in the country were enrolled in the study’s survey. Cumulative Distribution Functions (CDFs) and Artificial Neural Network statistical (ANN) methods were used for ranking biosecurity on farms, including a breakdown for large and small farms, and to identify areas that require improvements. The ANN is used to correlate preparedness in the focus areas to the poultry farms’ biophysical and business characteristics, such as the number of yearly flock cycles, farm capacity, the total area of the farms, density, and the number of biosecurity workers. This study finds that more stringent implementation of vaccination protocol, isolation, and human and vehicle-flow controls for disinfection are most needed. The study also revealed that poultry farms address biosecurity preparedness differently based on the type of production on large or small farms, and for broilers or layers.
AB - Biosecurity implemented on the poultry farms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the form of preparedness against any possible outbreak of disease, is critical for farm survival, safety, and development. Little information on the status of biosecurity readiness for containing any outbreak of poultry disease is available. This study was conducted to evaluate the status of biosecurity on commercial poultry farms in the UAE. Four categories of biosecurity measures/actions: isolation, human and traffic flow, cleaning, and disinfection, and adoption of vaccination protocols were considered. All 37 licensed commercial poultry farms in the country were enrolled in the study’s survey. Cumulative Distribution Functions (CDFs) and Artificial Neural Network statistical (ANN) methods were used for ranking biosecurity on farms, including a breakdown for large and small farms, and to identify areas that require improvements. The ANN is used to correlate preparedness in the focus areas to the poultry farms’ biophysical and business characteristics, such as the number of yearly flock cycles, farm capacity, the total area of the farms, density, and the number of biosecurity workers. This study finds that more stringent implementation of vaccination protocol, isolation, and human and vehicle-flow controls for disinfection are most needed. The study also revealed that poultry farms address biosecurity preparedness differently based on the type of production on large or small farms, and for broilers or layers.
KW - Artificial neural network application
KW - Assessment
KW - Biosecurity
KW - Poultry farms
KW - Preparedness against biosecurity threats
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U2 - 10.3390/agriculture10100426
DO - 10.3390/agriculture10100426
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85091583587
SN - 2077-0472
VL - 10
SP - 1
EP - 19
JO - Agriculture (Switzerland)
JF - Agriculture (Switzerland)
IS - 10
M1 - 426
ER -