On the 10th November 2020, Livetec was called to a farm in Herefordshire after an avian influenza outbreak was suspected on a farm which was home to over 46,000 broiler breeder chickens. This was the second outbreak of HPAI H5N8 in the UK in a week, sparking fears across the country.
With AI suspected on site, APHA imposed restrictions and contacted Livetec to carry out emergency depopulation procedures. As a key partner to APHA and DEFRA, the Livetec team acted with the utmost levels of professionalism and care to diagnose the most appropriate course of action and carry out the measures.
Over the course of five days, the highly experienced Livetec Operations team completed a full depopulation and enacted the initial stages of cleansing and disinfection throughout the farm, including the poultry sheds. This allowed the secondary phase of cleansing and disinfection to take place.
Using our years of experience and expertise, the Livetec Operations team were able to help progress the farm towards the lifting of surveillance and restricted zones.
The results of a full investigation established indirect contact with wild birds as the likely cause, which could be due to a lack of operational and procedural biosecurity measures. Enhanced biosecurity measures would have reduced the impact and likelihood of this outbreak.
