Studies in Hatchery Sanitation

Abstract

EFFECTIVE sanitation measures have long been required of hatcheries but only recently has a systematic grading of their sanitary status been attempted. In Canada, the microbial examination of hatcher fluff as developed by Wright et al. (1959) has been the means by which the majority of hatcheries have been evaluated in a program jointly operated by federal and provincial personnel. In Great Britain, investigation of the microbial counts of air in incubators and hatchery rooms revealed a marked increase during periods of activity such as taking off and boxing chicks, Anonymous (1960). Chute and Gershman (1961) employed an Andersen sampler for determining bacterial and mold counts in a variety of machines and concluded that this method was useful in evaluating the sanitary program of a hatchery. Gentry et al. (1962) found that the bacterial contamination as revealed by the Andersen sampler was lower in a hatchery whose design tended to…