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Networking European poultry actors for enhancing the compliance of biosecurity measures for a sustainable production

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NETPOULSAFE (Networking European poultry actors for enhancing the compliance of biosecurity measures for a sustainable production)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-04-01 al 2023-06-30

Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have highlighted the sensitivity of the European poultry sector to epidemics and the need to significantly strengthen biosecurity practices compliance. In recent years, interest in biosecurity has increased due to the expansion of trade in goods, food, plants and animals, increased international travel, and new outbreaks of transboundary diseases. Public awareness on biodiversity and the environment has increased and greater attention is being paid to the impact of agriculture on its long-term future. This underlines the importance of having appropriate biosafety capacity, including that measures are observed by the commodity chains. More specifically, regulatory bodies need to support practitioners (farmers and operators of the whole value chain, from hatcheries to slaughterhouses) for better biosecurity compliance. Given the complexity of the challenge, dealing with all dimensions of the production chain (public safety, economic, as well as environmental), and at multiple scales (local, regional, national and international), a holistic and multi-actor approach of the European poultry production chain is needed.

The NETPOULSAFE project collect, synthesize and disseminate the available information (bottom-up knowledge transfer) and report on the positive feedback from the supporting measures implemented by poultry operators to support biosecurity compliance (top-down and peer-to-peer knowledge transfer). It has been designed to answer the most urgent needs of EU poultry farmers around the following objectives:

SO1: To create a self-sustainable network of National poultry AKIS, representative of the European production systems
SO2: Analyse the effective implementation of biosecurity practices in the different European production systems at local scale to identify relevant, tailored and viable knowledge and best practices
SO3: To analyse and select the most effective supporting measures for ensuring biosecurity compliance, adapted to each National poultry AKIS
SO4: To validate a set of key supporting measures on pilot farms to provide evidence of their impacts
SO5: To widely and efficiently disseminate tailored best practices to all stakeholders (including policy makers) for ensuring biosecurity practices acceptance, ownership and compliance
WP1
AKIS recruitment is ongoing by involvement of stakeholders in the other work packages, mainly through pilot farm activities, creation and sharing of dissemination material and C&D activities. Monthly NF meetings are ongoing to discuss progress and faced challenges in all countries. Related initiatives have been identified to link with and contacts have been taken with other EU projects.

WP2
The WP has been completed. The report of biosecurity practices details field data on the implementation or not of biosecurity measures in the different poultry productions, to better understand the reasons of non-implementation of some biosecurity measures. The global analysis of supporting measures helped with the answers the questions listed in the previous report in different production types in participating countries. One scientific article with an overview of databases reporting biosecurity compliance in poultry productio has been published.

WP3
The online (Biocheck.gent) biosecurity scoring tools for conventional indoor and outdoor poultry were developed and translated in native language of all participating countries. The supporting measures were tested in pilot farms and corresponding data will be analysed further, as well as technical parameters, biosecurity implementations costs, etc. Scientific publications on the development of the tool and on national data concerning the national validation of the supporting measures are under progress.

WP4
The creation of the dissemination materials (DMs) is almost finished. The first batch of factsheets was translated in 7 languages of the consortium. The DMs are uploaded on the knowledge reservoir and YouTube. The 7 MOOCs have been released in English and local languages. A first version of the handbook containing the factsheets in English has been finalised. To maximise our impact, the different C&D tools have been improved for user-friendliness. More posts have been shared on our social media as well with an increasing number of followers.

WP5
The different C&D channels of the project have been created. Communication channels, both global and specific to each country, have been identified and C&D of both the project activities and results has been shared through events, conferences, webinars, articles... The C&D plan and guidelines have been updated in D5.1.

WP6
A 6-month amendment has been accepted and the work plan and budget are revised according to this, putting more efforts in the C&D campaign. All deliverables due up to now have been produced and milestones have been reached. Monthly WP meetings were held since the beginning of the project, and 6 general meetings took place.

WP7
No ethic-related issue raised.
WP1
7 national poultry AKIS networks, including a Pilot farm network, are established and implemented with 1200 members. The networks stimulate knowledge exchange, making use of knowledge which is used or close to be put into practice but not sufficiently shared and known, supporting crossfertilization and link with national and EU R&I landscape.

WP2
The WP2 results provide the current knowledge about the implementation of biosecurity practices (implemented or not) and the list of the supporting measures (considered successful or required) in the participating countries in different poultry production systems. The WP2 results are used for the creation of a variety of project materials and actively disseminated according to the C&D plan by each Partner.

WP3
One of the main outcomes of this WP will be the possibility to measure farm biosecurity more quantitatively. The Biocheck.gent tool for 5 new poultry species was launched and has been used worldwide. It is being used to evaluate the interventions in pilot farms and to study the evolution of farms scores over time. A descriptive analysis of the cost-effectiveness of supportive measures and the impact of the tested SM will be available. Relevant practices will be transferred to the project Knowledge Reservoir and disseminated.

WP4
The large number and variety of DMs created allow us to reach a wide audience with different subjects, enhancing knowledge sharing and networking. The remaining DMs about supporting measures will be finalised and shared to spread the good practices to farmers/advisors, enhancing biosecurity compliance.

WP5
Results obtained from WP2 and DMs have already been disseminated through different channels and events already identified, both global and local scale, reaching a wide audience. All results of WP2-3 will be disseminated until the end of the project, thus achieving the greatest possible impact.

WP6
Management WP expects to have a smooth general project implementation as a result of the project, together with findable, accessible, identifiable and reusable deliverables. Coordination team is paying attention to reaching the impact of the project thanks to the obtained 6 months extension, which will allow more impactful dissemination of the project results.

WP7
If potential ethic-related issue would raise in the course of the project, we'd provide clear presentation of the case and the solution.
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