PHOTOS: HANNA HAMINA
FARM VISIT ▶▶▶
Excelling in antibiotic- free broiler production
Finland is quite a success story when it comes to producing poultry without the use of antibiotics and one excellent example is the farm of Hanna Hamina. Not a single flock has been treated with antimicrobials for over 10 years.
BY CHRIS MCCULLOUGH H
anna Hamina, who is also executive director of the Finnish Poultry Association, runs a broiler farm to- gether with her husband, Raine Rekikoski, in Eura in the southwest of Finland. Her entire emphasis,
like all chicken producers in Finland, is to raise birds without the use of antibiotics and at a high level of sustainability. Her farm has been in the broiler business since 1980 with Hanna taking over operations in 1999. Today it runs 150,000 broilers on seven rotations per year. There are four broiler houses on the farm extending over a total of 8,000m2
, allowing Hanna to produce a total of 1.5
million kilograms of poultry meat per year. The farm extends to 250 hectares on which Hanna also grows wheat for the
Profile Hanna Hamina is executive director of the Finnish Poultry Associ-
ation and a broiler farmer in Eura in the southwest of Finland. She produces a total of 1.5 million kilograms of meat per year. The farm extends to 250 hectares where wheat for the birds is also grown, plus an additional 100 acres of forest used to pro- duce woodchips to heat the poultry houses.
birds, plus it has an additional 100 acres of forest used to produce woodchips to heat the poultry houses. Hanna: “We have a contract with HKScan, we buy our day-old chicks from the company and also sell broilers back to them. Producing antibiotic-free starts with a production plan that limits dis- ease pressure by design. We operate an ‘all-in, all-out’ method and the farm is empty for about two weeks between the rotations.” Hanna continues: “Our flocks are not thinned, so there is no added period of stress and disease exposure. In terms of bird space, we can have a maximum of 42kg/m2 in practice it is about 40 to 41kg/m2
, but .”
Strict protocols Strict biosecurity protocols are followed on this farm as Han- na tries to keep all pathogens away from the whole chain. “We do not give the broilers any vaccines, so we want to avoid any risk. It has not been necessary to give broilers anti- biotics for more than ten years in Finland. We test all flocks for salmonella and all salmonella serotypes are forbidden. Cam- pylobacter levels are also low in Finland, with between 2-4% of flocks testing positive per year.” Finland has never had any cases of avian influenza and farm- ers like Hanna are always on guard to ensure it stays that way. “Keeping broilers inside, nets in inlets and outlets to keep wild birds away, are all part of our strict biosecurity to keep the birds safer,” says Hanna. “In addition to that we also main- tain rodent control, keep the surroundings clean and tidy, have biosecurity protocols for caretakers, like changing clothes and boots, hand washing and no visitors. “Since we keep the broilers indoors, there are no problems with preda- tors. Our main worry in terms of diseases is E. coli and that passes from breeders to production. We vaccinate breeders against E. coli but sometimes that doesn’t help because there are so many E. coli bacteria types,” she notes.
Healthy production In Finland broiler farmers use the Ross 308 breed, the fast growing hybrid. Hanna says that with the Finnish broiler pro- duction strategy, the Ross 308 breed grows even better than under standard conditions. “We process the birds at 35 to 36 days old at a slaughter weight of 1.7kg, which as liveweight is about 2.3kg. We are not aiming for the fastest growth rate and need to slow growth down to ensure good quality meat and low mortality.” She continues: “In Finland foot pad health
14 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 7, 2021
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