Biosecurity, at the practical level, is an action plan designed to minimise the risk of introducing diseases into a flock. The term ‘biosecurity’ refers to measures taken to prevent or control the introduction and spread of infectious agents to flocks.

This document is designed to provide guidelines specifically for free range layers at a practical farming level. Some people may believe that, by their nature, free range farms cannot accommodate biosecurity principles. This is a misconception, as most biosecurity principles can be accommodated on a free range farm.

These guidelines identify some of the significant and obvious risk areas; however, it is important to remember that aspects such as the locality of the farm, proximity to other farms and effective vaccination programs all impact on a farm’s biosecurity. The guidelines include sections on:

• basic day-to-day biosecurity
• normal risk mitigation
• high risk biosecurity for circumstances of high disease pressure, such as Newcastle disease or avian influenza outbreaks.