Boosting response time New disease spread mitigation technology from Canada could not only improve on-farm biosecurity, but shorten re- sponse times as well. The innovative platform, called Farm Health Guardian, quickly and accurately tracks in real time and shuts down disease spread within minutes of receiving a disease symptom report. The technology could be a disease game changer if it’s widely adopted by the industry and its partners. Farm Health Guardian uses multiple technologies – geofencing, smartphones and GPS – to track and record the movement of staff, visitors and vehicles in and out of produc- tion facilities in real time. The different technologies commu- nicate with an app and provide contactless digital pre-screen- ing, paperless check-in, vehicle passport and GPS tracking. Tim Nelson, founder and president of Be Seen Be Safe Ltd. and creator of Farm Health Guardian, said the tracking tool offers many benefits. It’s touchless, which eliminates transfer risk by hands. In the event of an outbreak, reaction time isn’t slowed by the illegibility of visitor logs due to poor penman- ship, and it’s quick and easy for visitors to use. When an indi- vidual in the network approaches the farm, questions are sent directly to their phone. The questions could ask any- thing, from whether or not the visitor is sick, if they’ve visited another farm in the past few days, or if they’ve recently


travelled abroad. If that visitor doesn’t meet all the protocols, they receive a message saying that entry has been denied. That same message is sent to the system administrator and the barn manager. The system also works in drive-on drive- off situations as it remembers where the visitor has been be- fore and when. Denial can, of course, be overridden at the administrator’s discretion. During the trial and development stage, Nelson received val- uable feedback from the poultry sector in Alberta, Canada. Many farmers, he said, were nervous about being tracked. Be- cause of that feedback, a digital manual check-in option was also developed. The manual option doesn’t rely on GPS coor- dinates but records entry details only. Canadian farmers were also concerned that they’d be blamed for carrying a disease onto their farm. But Nelson said the only people who would know about the issue are the people who are or may be affected by it. In an ideal world the network would include all moving play- ers, including producers, feed suppliers, catching crews, egg collectors, manure haulers, barn cleaners, rendering compa- nies and veterinarians. If someone in the network gets hit with disease, in just a few minutes the system can see where visitors went before and after the point of concern. It can flag warnings and alert others within the network as well. A


▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 5/6, 2021


Dewulf said there are three golden rules for entrance and they apply to everyone enter- ing the facilities: Use herd-specif- ic footwear, herd-specific clothing and wash hands upon entering.


35


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44