Good Management Practices (GMPs) for egg producers

Each farm or enterprise should conduct an individual hazard analysis to identify all the management practices required to protect their farm.

Examples of Good Management Practices (GMPs) that apply to most farms are listed below:

  • secure all farm boundaries to prevent access of unauthorised visitors or animals.
  • do not allow visitors, vehicles or equipment onto the farm if they have been in contact with other poultry within 24 hours. If access is necessary, ensure that vehicles and equipment are cleaned and disinfected prior to entry. Provide clean clothes/overclothes and footwear for visitors.
  • disinfect shed equipment (including internal surfaces of sheds, especially brooding sheds, at batch depletion).
  • disinfect vehicles that need to enter or closely approach sheds by an approved method.
  • purchase poultry, feed and litter from approved suppliers with quality assurance programs that meet industry standards and your requirements.
  • minimise access of wild birds (particularly water fowl, pigeons and psittacines), animals and rodents to your birds by:
    • maintenance of fencing and shedding;
    • control of feed sources;
    • pest control programs; and
    • keeping areas around birds clean and clear.
  • prevent access of outdoor range birds to unsanitised surface water. Surface water includes water sourced from dams, open tanks, streams and open drains.
  • vaccinate replacement pullets against endemic pathogens or emergency diseases (if vaccination is permitted) that threaten your farm.
  • do not keep other birds, poultry or pigs on your farm.
  • dispose of manure, dead birds and reject eggs in an approved manner.
  • take steps to minimise aerosols entering sheds from other sheds on the farm, other poultry farms, processing plants, manure stockpiles, and other birds or pigs.

Source: Code of Practice Biosecurity in the Egg Industry

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