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A GROWING CONSENSUS
USDA APHIS has approved foam for use in mass depopulation—and commercial growers increasingly recognize its utility.
Commercial poultry companies have long been seeking a practical method for mass depopulation during an outbreak of AI or similar pathogens, to limit the spread of the disease.
Researchers and commercial poultry companies recently established that non-toxic water-based foam with a certain bubble size presents a practical, effective, and humane method for mass depopulation. Foam of the right bubble size creates an occlusion in the trachea of birds, causing a rapid onset of hypoxia. The foam that blankets the broiler house induces physical hypoxia—the same cause of death as the approved method using carbon dioxide gas (CO2).
Until the debut, until the debut of the AVI-FOAMGUARD, safely delivering foam into a broiler house—with the optimal bubble size and at the right volume to achieve effectiveness—has been a hurdle.
Kifco's AVI-FOAMGUARD overcomes this hurdle. Kifco's system dispenses a medium-expansion foam with small bubbles optimal for inducing physical hypoxia. Dispensing a large volume of foam in a short period, the AVI-FOAMGUARD gives commercial producers a simple method that quickly suppresses infected poultry without unduly stressing poultry or personnel. Our equipment substantially reduces labor costs and time, and may even enhance the composting process necessary to deactivate viruses.
USDA Approves Foam
The launch of Kifco's AVI-FOAMGUARD system comes as the USDA has tacitly approved the foam method for mass depopulation, in an announcement made by Dr. Ron DeHaven, Administrator of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Service. DeHaven announced this approval at the Delmarva Poultry Industry's annual meeting on Poultry Health & Processing, in Ocean City, MD, on Oct. 12, 2006.
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