Experiences of coaching as supporting measure to improve biosecurity in Italian poultry farms

Biosecurity measures represent a fundamental step to preserve the health and the welfare of poultry flocks. Its role have been widely proven as beneficial for poultry farmers, but its compliance is not always achieved. According to the routine checks of the level of biosecurity implementation in Italian poultry farms, its compliance seems overall good as well as high structural biosecurity standards. Despite this, there seems to be still some room for improvement in procedural biosecurity that could be addressed by the farmers’ training and education. Within the NetPoulSafe project (H2020 project, G.A. No. 101000728), the validation of supporting measures (e.g., videos, trainings, group discussions, coaching) to improve biosecurity is being carried out in each country participating to the project. As partner of NetPoulSafe, Italy is implementing some supporting measures, such as farmer coaching. After data analysis of WP2 questionnaires developed in the framework of the project (findings are presented in another abstract submitted to the WVPAC 2023), and according to the opinion of poultry farmers and advisors, group discussions, virtual farm tours and farmer coaching were identified as the most promising supporting measures to experience in Italy. The first two supporting measures (i.e., group discussions and virtual farm tour) aimed at collecting needs and deficiencies directly from the farmers, while the coaching session aimed at making an action plan to improve biosecurity at farm level. Virtual farm tour and group discussion were addressed during two physical workshops (one dedicated to meat production and the other one to egg production), to which farmers, advisors, and operators were invited to participate. For the validation of the coaching, 26 pilot farms located in different Italian regions (i.e., Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, and Apulia) were involved. These farms belonged to the following commercial categories: broilers (n = 5), free range broilers (n = 4), layers (n = 4), free range layers (n = 3), turkeys (n = 6), ducks (n = 2), breeders (n = 2). A first assessment of the farmers’ attitude to change (ADKAR-Partage questionnaire) and the farm biosecurity scoring (Biocheck.Ugent questionnaire) was carried out before the coaching session. A second assessment is planned at the end of the validation phase (June 2023). During each coaching session, relevant stakeholders (e.g., official vets, farm vets, technicians, and other operators) associated with the target farm were present, and critical points and action plans to implement in the farm were addressed. Preliminary findings of the coaching sessions show that the management of external farm workers (e.g., catching crews), the microbial load assessment after cleaning and disinfection, and other minor biosecurity interventions (e.g., small renewal of poultry houses) are the most interesting points on which an improvement is expected. Additionally, a wide heterogeneity in farmers’ attitude towards the change, based on their experience in biosecurity (e.g., management of infectious diseases) and the assistance by vets/technicians, was perceived. No scoring of the farm biosecurity is yet available because still ongoing; thus, the efficacy of the supporting measures cannot be determined so far. Even though the validation of the supporting measures is still ongoing, virtual farm tours, group discussions and coaching sessions targeting the farmers seem to be interesting and useful to improve biosecurity compliance in Italian poultry farms.