Routing at the hatchery

Routing at the hatchery

Biosecurity zones imply using strict routes and separations to prevent contamination and transmission between the various zones. The movement of material and people between zones should be limited. Transitions between zones have to be obvious: hygiene locks and/or doors form a barrier to prevent too much easy traffic of personnel between zones. The group that poses the greatest risk is the technical service team. Their work involves all parts of the hatchery where troubleshooting or maintenance is required. And it is tempting to just walk from one area to the other without respecting the hygiene rules. Good hatchery design takes into account a clean zone (inside the hatchery) and a dirty zone (outside the hatchery). The borders between the clean and dirty zone are at the egg reception and chick dispatch. The use of separate truck bays for egg delivery and chick dispatch helps to prevent cross contamination. If eggs are disinfected immediately on arrival, the storage room is considered to be a clean zone. If eggs are stored first and only disinfected just before setting, the storage room is considered to be a dirty zone.

Materials must be cleaned and disinfected in the zone where they are used. This means that a hatchery has numerous cleaning and disinfection areas.

Setter trays Hatcher baskets Chick boxesFarm materialscopyright protected

The personnel must also follow their own route. This illustration clearly shows that the changing rooms and canteen are risk areas, because they are places used by all the personnel. It also clearly shows how the technical personnel (black) move through the entire hatchery.

Different coloured clothing is used for each zone. For example, the Preferably use separate canteens. In this example, each group uses technical personnel wear black overalls and black footwear. Make a different colour chair. Technical personnel have black chairs. They sure that technical personnel can change their footwear as they move are seated closest to the entrance so they do not contaminate the from the hatching rooms to the transfer/setter rooms. Or even better: entire room if their clothing is dirty. But this situation is not optimal. Each team has their own locker in the canteen to store their belongings. This also aims to minimise cross contamination. a different technical team for each biosecurity zone. The eggs here are being transferred from paper egg flats to setter trays manually. The clutter here presents a biosecurity risk. Don’t re-use paper egg flats!copyright protected

Place a door that can be locked between different zones, to prevent people moving between them. A floor plan is also displayed on the door showing the layout of the zones. The disinfection lock between the egg storage room and the setter room is also the point that separates clean and dirty routes. In other words, the entire area where eggs are handled (grading, placing on setter trays and preparing trolleys for the setter) is the dirty zone! Personnel must not walk to the setter rooms without showering first.