Managing emergency disease outbreaks in poultry farms
Emergency animal diseases that affect poultry can affect large numbers of animals and have the potential to severely impact Queensland's poultry industries.
Emergency animal diseases that affect poultry include:
Prevention and management are the most important factors in disease control.
Report sick or dead birds
Report an unusually large number of dead or sick animals to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.
Quarantine sick birds
If you identify sick birds in your flock, remove them from the main flock immediately and obtain a diagnosis from a qualified person as soon as possible.
Do not remove any animals from the property. This will help to reduce the risk of disease spreading and allow authorities to test for disease or examine in a post-mortem.
Implement action plan
In the event of an outbreak, an emergency response is required to restrict any further spread of the disease.
Diseases are more easily treated and controlled if they are detected early.
In the event of a suspected emergency animal disease outbreak, an action plan must be put in place.
The plan should include:
- the circumstances when an alert should be raised
- who to contact (veterinarian, Biosecurity Queensland)
- what high level biosecurity measures need to be activated, such as quarantine procedures.
We do not charge for investigations into suspected reportable disease incidents, even if the result is negative.