POULTRY BREEDING STOCK REGULATIONS

SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 36.40

POULTRY BREEDING STOCK REGULATIONS

25th April, 1997

LEGAL NOTICE 50 of 1997.

The title of these Regulations is Poultry Breeding Stock

Regulations.

Rules for Local Breeding Stock

(1) The farm shall not be used for any purpose other than

rearing breeding stock birds.

(2) Persons registered in the breeding flock register must allow

departmental inspectors to enter and inspect the farm and its

records on demand.

(3) Persons registered in the breeding flock register shall keep

the following records regarding the movement of poultry, chicks,

other fowl and eggs

(a) date of movement;

(b) number moved;

(c) identity of house/s into which poultry, chicks, fowl or

eggs are placed;

(d) identity of house or houses from which poultry, chicks,

fowl or eggs are moved;

(e) address of premises from which chicks, poultry, fowl

or eggs originate;

(f)

address of destination of chicks, poultry, fowl or eggs.

(4) A licensee who is registered in the breeding stock register

shall keep records of any vaccinations or medicinals administered.

Any vaccination programme shall be approved by the Director.

(5) The Director shall be duly responsible for the screening of

any breeding flock against any notifiable disease and salmonellosis

and any other disease as the need arises, and no private tests will be

allowed unless authorised by the Director.

(6) The Director shall keep a register on each breeding flock

containing the following information

(a) date of sampling;

(b) number and type of samples taken;

(c) tests carried out;

(d) results.

This register shall be made available to the licensee registered in

the breeding flock register on demand.

(7) Poultry houses and egg storing rooms shall be screened

against vermin, birds and other animals.

(8)

No other animals shall be allowed access to poultry houses.

(9) Footbaths containing an approved disinfectant shall be

maintained at the entrance of each house.

(10) No person shall enter a poultry house unless wearing

protective clothing.

(11) No person shall enter or leave a poultry house before

cleaning and disinfecting his boots and washing his hands with

soap and water. Such facilities should be available at the entrance

of each poultry house.

(12) On depopulation of a poultry house all manure shall be

removed and the poultry house cleansed and disinfected with

approved disinfectants.

(13) Eggs are to be collected from a flock at least twice daily.

Broken, leaking or dirty eggs are to be collected in separate

containers from other eggs and shall not be incubated.

(14) All eggs intended for incubation shall be sanitised on the

farm unless transported within 12 hours to a hatchery and shall be

stored in dust-free rooms in which poultry, vermin, other birds and

animals cannot enter. These rooms shall be used exclusively for egg

storing and should be kept at a temperature of 13 -15ºC and a

relative humidity of 70 - 80%.

(15) All equipment for catching and transporting poultry shall

be cleansed and disinfected with approved disinfectants before it is

used.

(16) The farm premises shall be surrounded by a boundary wall

or fence and access to the farm shall be through a security gate.

(17) Farm premises shall be situated at least 200 metres from

any other livestock farm, habitable buildings or processing plants.

(18) The packing of eggs shall comply with regulations issued

for imported hatching eggs.

(19) The following structure must also be present

(a) vermin-proof food store;

(b) incinerator or an approved form of organic matter,

disinfection and decontamination;

(c) washroom for the disinfection of personnel;

(d) a room for the disinfection of equipment and

protective clothing. This must be sited at the perimeter

fence and be supplied with hot and cold running water;

(e) post-mortem room also supplied with hot and cold

running water;

(f)

store room and office supplied with a lockable

medicine cabinet;

(g) toilet facilities and changing room;

(h) a suitable drainage system.

(20) The Director must be informed of any medications

administered to a flock.

(21) Licensees keeping a breeding flock shall submit a monthly

report to the Director with the following information

(a) the number of hatching eggs produced and destroyed;

(b) the identification of type of poultry;

(c) batch numbers;

(d) destination.

(22) The Director shall be duly informed of the date of

POULTRY BREEDING STOCK

slaughter of each parent stock flock.

In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise

requires -

"breeding stock" means a collection of poultry reared on a farm

with an aim of commercially reproducing particular species or

varieties thereof;

"Director" means the Director responsible for the veterinary

service and includes any officer of the department duly authorised

by the Director to act on his behalf;

"approved disinfectant" means such disinfectant as is approved

by the Director and appearing in the Second Schedule to these

Regulations, or any other disinfectant that the Director may

approve for a specific need;

"poultry chick" means the young offspring of poultry being

under three days old and weighing under 185 grams and that has

not been fed;

"flock" means a collection of living poultry of the same health

and immunity status, reared on the same premises or in the same

enclosure and constituting a single zootechnical unit;

"licensee" means a husbandryman who is licensed in terms of the

rules in the First Schedule to these Regulations to keep a poultry

house for the breeding of poultry;

"parent stock flock" means poultry kept for the production of

commercial hatching eggs;

"poultry house" means a house or shelter for poultry which is

licensed in terms of the rules in the First Schedule to these

Regulations for the keeping of breeding stock by a licensee;

"notifiable disease" means a disease listed in the Third Schedule

to these Regulations;

"farm" means a breeding stock farm made up of one or more

poultry houses together with all their annexes as specified in these

Regulations in which poultry breeding stock are reared;

"breed" means to rear poultry stock of different kinds

particularly by mingling or crossing one species or variety thereof

with another, and includes the keeping, rearing, fattening and

selling of poultry and broodstock;

"poultry" means fowl, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea fowls,

quails, pigeon, pheasants and partridges.

List of Approved Disinfectants

(1) HATCHERY EQUIPMENT

Chlorine

Iodine

Phenol

Quaternary Ammonium Compounds

(2) WATER DISINFECTION

Chlorine

Iodine

Quaternary Ammonium Compounds

(3) PERSONNEL

Chlorine

Iodine

Quaternary Ammonium Compounds

(4) EGG WASHING

Chlorine

Quaternary Ammonium Compounds

(5) FLOOR AND FOOTBATHS

Phenol

Quaternary Ammonium Compounds

(6) ROOMS

Iodine

Quaternary Ammonium Compounds

(1) No person shall breed any poultry, whether as owner,

part-owner or helper, unless he holds a licence issued to him by the

Director.

(2) No premises shall be used for the breeding of poultry unless

such premises are licensed by the Director to be used as a poultry-

house.

(3) The Director may only grant a licence for the keeping of a

farm after considering the application therefor, and that any further

requirements he may have requested the applicant to perform prior

to the granting of such licence, have actually been performed. In

the case of existing farms the Director is to allow a six month

period for the licensee to upgrade the farm.

(4) The licensee shall be responsible for the running of the

farm according to the Rules for Local Breeding Stock appearing in

the First Schedule to these Regulations, and the Director may at

any time revoke a licence if a farm is found lacking in any of the

conditions mentioned in the licence, or if in the opinion of the

Director there is a risk of spread of disease.

(5) Licences shall be valid for one calendar year, and may be

renewed from year to year.

(6) No extensions or alterations in any licensed farm may be

carried out unless previously authorised by the Director.

(7) The Director may inspect a farm and its records at any time

in order to ensure that the licence conditions are being complied

with.

List of Notifiable Diseases

(1)

Newcastle Disease

(2)

Fowl Plague.

The Director shall keep a breeding flock register in which

there shall be kept the following information

(a) the name, address and telephone number of the

licensee;

(b) the address and telephone number, site plan and

elevation plan of the farm;

(c) the type and species of poultry to be kept;

(d) the name of the manager of the farm;

(e) the capacity of each poultry-house or section thereof.

For the purposes of these Regulations the terms "washing"

and "disinfecting" mean

(a) thorough soaking of bedding and litter as well as

faecal matters with disinfectant;

(b) washing and cleaning by careful scrubbing and

brushing of ground, wall and floors;

(c) further washing with disinfectant;

(d) washing and disinfecting the outside of vehicles in

such manner that this washing will be carried out with

liquids applied under pressure.