| | INTRODUCTION Based on the epidemiologic information emanating from research on the recent outbreak of HPAI in the upper Midwest, and following site visits to clients, the attached draft biosecurity scoresheets are provided for the guidance of Subscribers to EGG-CITE. It is necessary to evaluate biosecurity according to a hierarchy and accordingly separate pages are provided for conceptual biosecurity, structural biosecurity and operational biosecurity. A fourth page deals with complexes receiving feed from a mill not located on the complex. |
The concept of the biosecurity evaluation relates to assessing the risk of introduction of disease into an operation and the subsequent dissemination of disease among complexes. A maximum score would be assigned if there was no appropriate conceptual approach, structural installations or operational procedure.
The auditor would assign a facility score less than the maximum risk score based on experience and comparisons among U.S. egg-production operations. For example any specific complex in Darke County, OH. or Sioux County, IA. would probably be assigned a score of 200 for “population density” since these areas have a high concentration of hens and turkeys operated by different companies located in close proximity. In contrast an isolated complex in Arizona or Utah would be assigned a score of 0 to 10 on population density since it is the only facility with commercial poultry within 250 miles. It is therefore obvious that facilities which operate with a high level of conceptual, structural and operational biosecurity will have low risk scores compared to what may be regarded as the maximum value of risk given the provisional scoring.