Apr 21, 2008 6 comments

Health hazards in poultry working environments

Mojtaba Yegani

The poultry industry expansion could not have happened without individuals working in different segments of the industry including farms, feed mills, and processing plants.

They are vulnerable to be exposed to a wide range of health and safety risks such as respiratory problems, traumatic injuries, and zoonotic infections.

Potential health hazards in poultry working environments are usually categorized as accidental, physical, chemical and biological.

1. How familiar are you with the potential hazards in your working environment?

2. How concerned are you about your employees' health?

3. If you are managing a poultry farm, feed mill or processing plant, how do you monitor safety regulations in place?

6 comments

Jan van Geest, Intracare The Netherlands

21 Apr 2008 14:26

Dear Mr.Mojtaba,

A very good topic, please do not forget the healthy risk of some products which are used by cleaning or desinfecting, for example peracetic acid which is suspect to promote cancer, (severall reports-investigations could be find on the internet). (some companies are delivering Peracetic acid as a cleaner or desinfect product)
K.Surendra Reddy,India

26 Apr 2008 02:40

Dear Mojtaba,
Even for the cleaning operations of poultry farm and hatchery in India use formaldehyde gas.It is very toxic and is proved that a potent carcinogenic.

Surendra Reddy,Senior Faculty,Animal Sciences,India.
Dr Narayan Paudyal, National Breeders Nepal Pvt. L

29 Apr 2008 19:02

Yes indeed, it is a very good topic. But the matter comes with the economy of farmers rather than the health hazards of the working personels. Unless something cheap and inexpensive and with positive health benefits can be made accessible to farmers, they will keep on using toxic chemicals like formaldehyde gas in hatchery sanitation. It is the situation in most of the poultry industries of Nepal!
Dr.Amir reza Bidgoli

30 Apr 2008 14:25

In the developing countries, we are suffering from lack of knowledge.Many farmers escape using safe products and have used to use cheap but dangerous products, especially when the feed prices are increasing.
we need education and education for replacing these short-term risks by long-term benefits.
Dr.Asif Mehboob Butt

2 May 2008 07:07

Dear Mr.Mojtaba,
The sad aspect is that the workers are not trained and remain totally unaware of their rights-to know what the hazards? how to prevant them. I have never seen any worker wearing masks or respirators. They are not guided on the imporatnce of the Personal Prtective Equipment Protocol, so that they know the potential hazards and then can avoid them.
Thanks for opening the discussion on such an important issue.
(Dr.Asif)
DVM.
Technical Manager, EVP Pakistan.
Mr. Yusuf Garba

5 May 2008 11:47

Dear Mojtaba,this issue centers more to the level of how much the employers are concerned towards the welfare of there personel. Most often, it is how well that production cost can be reduced so as to maximise profit