Veterinary session

Poultry farming is one of the fastest growing sectors in livestock production. The disease control and prevention of large-scale livestock production has developed in parallel with industrial livestock production and continues to be a major area of research to this day. Cleaning and disinfection ("C&D") is essential to ensure good hygiene conditions in poultry farms and a cornerstone of high quality production, animal welfare, food safety and consumer protection. Calculating the costs can be a considerable financial benefit to livestock farmers. The aim of our study was to investigate the epidemiological situation of poultry flocks in Hungary, to assess the most commonly used active substances in C&D protocols, their quantity and annual costs. The data collected during the nationwide flock hygiene survey were recorded online, the questionnaire was completed anonymously by the farmers contacted by telephone, and the data collected during individual site visits were recorded anonymously. In our study, we compared, among other things, the „product” sector and the „breeding” stock sector. Our results show that glutaraldehyde and quaternary ammonium compounds are the most widely used disinfectants on domestic farms. Our study showed that the average disinfectant cost per bird per year in breeding colonies is twice as high as the average disinfectant cost per bird per year in the product sector. The average amount of detergent used per bird per year in the breeding sector is 0.006 litres, and 0.005 litres in the product sector. The average consumption of disinfectants per bird per year is 0.03 litres in the breeding sector and 0.006 litres in the product sector.