Networking European poultry actors for enhancing the compliance of biosecurity measures for a sustainable production

Poultry sector is one of the main agricultural production in Europe, providing 15.2M tonnes of poultry meat and over 7.5 M tonnes of eggs in 2018, with a 21.2 billion € turnover in poultry meat in 1/1/20150 M€ worth of eggs in 2016.It is also a very sensitive sector regarding epidemics, that can impact the sector economics (e.g. 1/1/201517 episodes of Avian Influenza). and also foodborne pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter…) that may have an impact on public health. Biosecurity is acknowledged as the appropriate answer for preventing diseases spread and safeguarding competitive and sustainable poultry farms. Best practices are known all over Europe but compliance of farmers and other operators (e.g. transport, hatcheries…) to biosecurity may not be optimum. Stakeholders need to be supported for effectively implement biosecurity practices. NETPOULSAFE aims to improve biosecurity compliance in poultry farming by compiling, validating and sharing supporting measures implemented or close to being into practice in 7 large poultry producing countries, thanks to a network of 7 National Poultry AKIS. These multi-actor groups, gathering around 500 people, will be chaired and interconnected through Network Facilitators who will stimulate knowledge cross-fertilisation and exchange both at National and EU scales. Supporting measures will be collected from field and literature and analysed from technical and socio-economic point of view to be either validated in pilot farms or directly disseminated to farmers, operators and advisors (incl. vets). In-depth analysis of National contexts will enable to define tailored dissemination strategies. Material (incl. audio-visuals, factsheets, Practice Abstracts, e-learning modules) will be co-constructed with the National Poultry AKIS to ensure its acceptance and shared through most consulted channels and dedicated platform. Synergies with on-going activities, especially EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, will increase project impacts.