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How
to keep disease agents on egg flats, palettes, or egg racks from
infecting your flock Egg flats, palettes, and egg racks are a good way for an unwanted disease organism to enter a poultry farm and infect resident birds. If we follow the path of egg flats, palettes, and egg racks, it is easy to see how this can happen. Egg flats that are full of eggs from the ranch are stacked onto egg racks or palettes. They leave the farm and go to the processing plant where they are mixed with flats, palettes, and racks coming from other ranches. Prior to their return to the farm, the flats are cleaned and may be disinfected in an automated flat washer. This process is supposed to remove any feces, feathers, or egg material contaminating the flats. The flats are then returned to the racks or palettes and loaded onto a truck. The flats are returned to the farm where they are again filled with eggs. In this scenario, there are several biosecurity weaknesses: 1) Flats may not be disinfected prior to their return to the farm and they may have been in contact with flats coming from other ranches. 2) Racks and palettes are neither cleaned nor disinfected and may well be carrying disease organisms in the dried egg material on their boards or around their wheels. 3) The truck in which the flats, palettes and racks are returned may not be clean. There
are several ways in which these weaknesses might be improved in
order to remove the threat of disease introduction through the collection
and processing of eggs. Separation of egg handling from the flock |
