The following points are fundamental to a program of sanitation, these points can hardly be over-emphasized that poor management practices are a major source of poultry health problems. These points include:

PREPARATION OF PREMISES It is important to rear the chickens in a clean, disinfected house. Equally important is early preparation of the house. Each house should be left vacant for a minimum of two week after it is disinfected and before the new chickens are housed in it. The effectiveness of disinfecting a house is dependent upon the thoroughness of the cleaning before the germicide is applied. The following steps should be undertaken:

• Completely depopulate the poultry house.
• Take out all movable equipment, and also make necessary repairs.
• Unused feed should not be held over from one brood of birds to the next. Remove all feed that is hardened and stuck to empty hoppers and bins.
• Remove cobwebs and dust by hosing down the ceiling and walls. This will aid in dust control during litter removal.
• Collect all the litter in empty bags and dump it in a remote part of the farms.
• Scrub walls, floors, perches and equipment with hot lye solution made by adding 1/2 kg. Lyme (sodium hydroxide, NaOH) to 20 gallons of hot water or with a good detergent. Let the lye solution or detergent stand for two hours, then wash with clean water.
• Spray the ceiling, walls, windows and floors with a good disinfectant.
• For fumigation, close building tightly, bring temperature to 70°F, and then discharge fumigant. After fumigation lock the house and let it stand for 24 hours. Air out thoroughly before entering.
• It should be emphasized that fumigation of poultry house is, as a rule, impracticable because of the difficulty in making them airtight.
• Apply insecticide to the floors, wall/floor junctions and around the base of posts. Leave the building vacant for about two weeks before using it.
• Proper cleaning and disinfection of equipments should also be done.
• Use footbaths at each entrance. Change footbath germicide every few days.
• Put in new litter.
• Install the sanitized equipment.
• Fill feeders and waterers, start brooders, warm the building to starting temperature and place chick guards 24 hours before the chicks arrive.

 Environment: Environment includes control of temperature, humidity, air movements, dust, noxious gases and odors of ammonia and the degree of lighting. These items are related to such factors as livability, feed conversion, growth rate and reproductive performance. Environment involves the area of nursing care and can be expected to lower the onset of disease in general.

Feed: It is important to provide standard commercial balanced feed with adequate feeder space and proper size feeders, according to age. Feed must be of good quality with no mould/fungal growth. For avoiding fungal growth use mould free ingredients, add 1 kg of calcium or sodium propionate per ton of finished feed, rapid turnover of feed including elimination of caked feed.

Water: The water given to poultry birds should be free from dust, bad odor, mould, algae, etc. It should be cool, sweet and clean one.

Chick Quality: Chick should be secured from breeders known to be free of egg-transmitted diseases. These include Mycoplasmosis (CRD), pullorum, avian encephalomyelitis and leukosis.

ISOLATIONS TO MAINTAIN SANITATION

• Isolate the poultry house.
• One house/farm, if possible, or at least 30 m distance separating houses.
• Locate the house at least 300 m from roads or adjacent properties.
• Erect a fence around the house.
• Have a separate caretaker for each house.
• Remove old litter to at least 300 m from poultry house.

SEGREGATE THE BIRDS

• Screen out free flying birds.
• Eliminate all stray poultry and yard birds.
• Segregate poultry flock by age, one age/house or farm.
• Keep pet animals away from the poultry house.

MAINTAIN SECURITY

• Have new birds delivered in sanitized boxes.
• Servicemen, vaccinators and other workers must wear clean overalls, caps and sanitized boots, especially stored on farm.
• Promptly dispose off sick or dead birds.
• Maintain vermin control
• Bring litter material in clean trucks.
• Keep out unauthorized personnel, locking of gate and or house.
• The caretaker and his family should have no other contact with poultry.

VACCINATION

It prevents losses from major poultry epidemics. Therefore, it is important to enforce a vaccination program and follow it rigidly.

FLOCK HEALTH MONITORING

• Current causes of mortality & sub-optional flock performance must be routinely examined.
• Immune status of the flock must be checked routinely.
• Dead birds should be sent to lab for examination weekly.
• Serologic test should be performed on each flock just prior to housing.
• Accurate records of vaccinations, treatments, flock performance and disease symptoms should be maintained.

FLOCK HEALTH SECURITY

• The lack of adequate farm security is a common problem.
• Numerous disease transmissions from farm to farm were observed.
• Disease security requires that Farms should be disinfected after the onset of a disease. Healthy birds should be separated from infected birds
• Single-age of flocks with complete depopulation at the end of each production cycle, complete clean up including disinfection & thorough control of all traffic to the farm are the basic elements of a sound security management programme.

OTHER CONTROL PROGRAMS

• 1. Coccidiosis control Coccidiostat must be used in feed or water. Coccidiosis vaccination program (if available) must be followed.
• 2. Parasite, lice, mite and rodent control
• 3. Dead bird and debris disposal Use incinerators Use plastic bags Use disposal pit