SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1653543
Biosecurity Implementation in Poultry Farms Across Europe and Neighboring Countries: A Systematic Review
Provisionally accepted- 1Universite de Ngaoundere, Ngaoundere, Cameroon
- 2Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
- 3University of Padua, Padua, Italy
- 4Universiteit Gent, Ghent, Belgium
- 5Naucni institut za veterinarstvo Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
- 6Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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Modern poultry production systems inherently concentrate large numbers of birds, which also increases the risk and potential impact of disease outbreaks. Biosecurity is widely recognized as the most important tool for reducing the risk of disease introduction, establishment, and spread to, within, and from an animal population. Thus, effective biosecurity is essential for sustainable poultry production, and assessing its implementation represents a crucial step. This systematic review aimed to evaluate biosecurity implementation in poultry farms across European and neighboring countries, following the Cochrane Handbook and PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Of the 1,515 articles retrieved from four databases, only 44 met the inclusion criteria and 16 provided usable data for assessing biosecurity implementation. Despite relatively broad geographical coverage, including eight multi-country studies involving 36 national assessments, the distribution of studies was uneven. Moreover, most studies (77%) were pathogen-or disease-specific (e.g., Campylobacter spp., avian influenza, etc.) and focused on a single poultry species, primarily broilers (55%), while assessments involving minor poultry species were rare. There was also marked variability in the methods used to assess biosecurity, and the level of biosecurity implementation differed significantly across countries. Based on descriptive evaluations, 58% of farms implemented all the biosecurity measures assessed. According to scoring-based assessments, the overall average biosecurity score was 66.9 out of 100. The most frequently implemented measures were those related to infrastructure and control of biological vectors, disease management, and purchase of one-day-old chicks. The heterogeneity of results, driven by differences in study design, poultry species, production systems, and methodological approach, highlights the complexity of evaluating biosecurity across diverse national contexts. This variability may reflect differences in epidemiological conditions, research funding, and national priorities. Although this review focused solely on primary research studies, the findings underscore the need to promote cross-country collaboration to enhance knowledge sharing and data harmonization.
Keywords: biosecurity, assessment, prevention, Poultry, Europe, Israel, Tunisia, Turkey
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Vougat Ngom, Leite, Tilli, Laconi, Mahmood, Prodanov Radulovic, Allepuz, Chantziaras and Piccirillo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Alessandra Piccirillo, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
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