Poultry producers and animal health officials in the United States have a new planning tool for the worst day on a farm: an Excel-based calculator that estimates the resources needed to depopulate a poultry house after highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is confirmed. The tool comes out of research funded by the US Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) and the USPOULTRY Foundation, the association announced from Tucker, Georgia.

The project, listed as F-115, Poultry House Mass Depopulation Calculator, was led by Dr Sanjay Shah of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Speed matters in an HPAI response, the association said, and having the right quantities of gas and equipment on hand is part of controlling the spread of the virus.

The calculator works out requirements for four depopulation methods: propane, propane combined with steam, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. It takes as inputs the bird type, the number and weight of birds, the housing system, the characteristics of the poultry house and the outside temperature, and returns the quantities an emergency crew would need.

Once validated, USPOULTRY said, the tool could give USDA personnel, state animal health officials and industry staff a practical way to estimate resource needs and plan before an outbreak rather than during one. Because it is built on the heat-transfer and energy characteristics of a poultry house, the association also sees it as a teaching aid for students and industry staff studying house energy efficiency.

The work is part of USPOULTRY's research programme, which covers every phase of poultry and egg production and processing and is funded in part by proceeds from the International Poultry Expo, part of the International Production & Processing Expo.

Producers or officials who want a copy of the calculator are asked to contact Dr Denise Heard, USPOULTRY's vice president of research programmes; the association's website carries details of its other funded projects.

The announcement was released by the US Poultry & Egg Association and carried by Morning Ag Clips.

Source: Morning Ag Clips