View Report Details

Assessing the Effectiveness of Biosecurity Training

Project Code: S14055

05/12/2011

SAC Commercial Services Ltd
Sparks, N

The FSA’s strategic plan for 2010-2015 has a key outcome designed to ensure that food produced or sold in the UK is safe to eat, in particular to reduce foodborne disease using a targeted approach – tackling campylobacter in chicken as a priority.

The report of the 2008 training sessions identified a number of biosecurity-related issues, including the common practice of not disinfecting vehicles onto and off site, the failure to use boot dips routinely, the absence of company-supplied clothing and the lack of on-farm access to toilet and effective handwashing facilities. The majority of teams reported that they had not changed their working practices following the training in 2008. However on further discussion it became apparent that there have been some areas of significant improvement such as the use of boot-dips and access to and use of toilets and handwashing facilities.

Many of the areas where some teams can still make further improvements (such as disinfecting vehicles onto and off sites and wearing clean clothing onto the farm) are targeted by the amended Red Tractor Farm Assurance Poultry Standards, although the report highlighted further areas where the standard may be tightened. In particular, the authors highlighted that the practice of allowing crews to take a rest break in their vehicles should be prohibited or there should be a requirement that crews do not wear contaminated clothing in the crew vehicle.

It is important to note that the changes that have been observed in Northern Ireland and Scotland may not be attributable to the 2008 course alone, due to the attention that has been focused by FSA and others on catchers and increasing biosecurity on poultry farms.

Final report

Some of the files on this site may be in a format that your computer can't read. However, you can download Readers and Viewers for the following document types below: