Relation Between Farm Biosecurity Measures and Poultry Production Performances: A Scoping Review

The poultry sector represents an essential component of agriculture worldwide. Its meat is one of the most consumed meat products, providing consumers with high-quality, nutritious and affordable protein. However, intensification of poultry production to meet the growing demand has led to the persistence of infectious diseases, which remains a serious constraint with negative impacts. To mitigate this issue, biosecurity is used as the main strategy. Unfortunately, farmers' perception of biosecurity benefits is reducing its effective implementation in poultry farms. Showing the possible positive impact of biosecurity on livestock performance could be a key reason that could drive improving biosecurity implementation by farmers. Following the PRISMA-Sc (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) method, this study aimed to map existing literature on the association between farm biosecurity or management measures and poultry production performances. The search was performed in four databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Agricola) with no time and geographic restriction.

From the 2,721 records identified during the search, only 13 were finally included in this review. The majority concerned broilers (n = 11) and were conducted across the world. Many of the included studies showed a positive correlation between biosecurity and production performances, with cleaning and disinfection and weight gain as the associated main factors. For instance, the positive associations included overall biosecurity and average mortality in the first week/average performance index; housing system and weight gain/feed intake/feed conversion ratio/performance index/live body weights; frequency of waterline sanitation and general performance; and adoption of biosecurity and number of eggs/flock in 3 months.

Further studies need to be conducted to provide evidence reinforcing the adoption and implementation of farm biosecurity measures for improving animal production performances.