Traditional farm visits are conducted to evaluate flocks, understand barn conditions, and identify improvements in flock management that can influence bird health. Our intentional alignment with production staff at each and every site serves us in better understanding the needs of each farm and delivering positive results for your flock.

We are certified by the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization (PAACO) to conduct poultry welfare auditing of standardized programs or company-specific welfare program compliance. We are always in-tune with welfare on all flock walk-throughs but can conduct specific welfare reviews by customer request. 

On nearly every farm visit we handle a variety of randomly selected birds that represent the general average flock health condition. During bird handling we are assessing body condition/composition, reviewing general health, and looking for any clear clinical signs of disease conditions.

Wellness bird scoring of select birds can be conducted to determine a representative flock and farm average for body composition (muscle condition, fat deposition, and skeletal health).

Mortality posting sessions are organized on a routine basis for disease investigation purposes. Select daily mortality is necropsied and significant clinical lesions/ causes of death are noted for each bird.

All wellness and mortality posting session data is collected and stored in a database, PathPro, specific to monitoring flock health by a variety of different factors. Company data can be reviewed by age, time frame, geography, strain, housing style, and many other factors to determine trends in flock health.

We review vaccine programs from a holistic approach to determine the most appropriate and cost-conscious vaccine program to optimize flock health. Total program evaluation includes vaccine selection, application methods, timing of application, and many other factors.  We are fully independent and your need drives our recommendation for the proper fit.

We understand that even the best designed vaccine programs can become irrelevant without proper implementation and application. We intentionally monitor vaccine application crews or individuals to identify quality of vaccination and work on continuous improvement of vaccine application.

Routine diagnostic testing of flocks for standard diseases is a tool we use to continuously improve and adjust vaccine program and application. The use of routine diagnostics such as serology can be extremely valuable in defining the health and productivity of flocks.

Biosecurity varies from operation to operation in many ways. We offer general advice on conceptual, structural, and procedural biosecurity that is practical for each operation to follow. We provide input on NPIP programs and biosecurity compliance.

As part of our value added service we offer a variety of staff training at the request of individual producers. These trainings can range from classroom-style presentations to on farm hands-on training. We are available for training via web meetings, webinars, and any format of on-site training that is desired. Examples of topics include monitoring for clinical signs, proper euthanasia techniques, necropsy of individual birds, and sample collection.

Depending on the needs of producers, we offer general opinions on bird health related to management areas. We leverage our resources to connect producers to the proper expert in order to address the specific program issue. We have broad reaching insight for every facet of your flock from lighting programs to water sanitation.

We work closely with nutrition staff including consulting nutritionists, on-staff feed formulators, and ingredient purchasing in areas relevant to bird health. We find that live production operations consistently benefit from nutrition and veterinary support being aligned on all topics that are bird related.