VIC Group: Sanitation lacking in outside farm area and feed are critical issues for poultry production

The Expert Advisory Board on Veterinary Medicine in Poultry farming met on October 25 in Moscow at the FeedVet-2023 exhibition during the conference "Veterinary Medicine in Agribusiness". Lusegen Khoshafian, Director of VIC Group Poultry Department, highlighted the two critical issues in poultry meat production during his presentation - lack of sanitary and hygienic treatment of the industrial complexes' grounds and raw materials.

The expert said that these two sources of infectious diseases such as avian influenza and Newcastle disease have become the primary problem points for the last 3-4 years. Examination of adjacent areas reveals pathogens at a soil depth of up to 5 cm, so it is a big mistake to disinfect only the interior of the poultry farm. The same applies to the grain, which, apart from heat treatment before pelleting, is not subjected to any other treatment.

Current technologies of soil, outside buildings and raw materials treatment provide a solution to this problem. Thus, the field trials conducted by the VIC experts, which included the territory disinfection after each broiler rearing round, showed an increase in poultry survival rate from 85.3 to 92.37% in the third round, average daily weight gain from 55.9 to 64.2 grams and a decrease in feed conversion from 1.77 to 1.5. That was a record-breaking performance for the farm.

"Compliance with sanitary standards and diagnostics providing a clear understanding of what veterinary measures are necessary will become the key trends in the poultry farming development," Lusegen Khoshafian predicted. The expert also outlined the following trends in the veterinary development of poultry farming:

1. Doubling of hygiene and sanitation costs.
2. 5-10 times increase in demand for diagnostics.
3. 25% reduction in veterinary costs.
4. Total transformation of the vaccine market.
5. Synthesis of substances.
6. Investments in R&D.
7. Industry digitalization and AI.
   
8. New facilities construction.
9. Technology transfer.
10. New players in the market.