National Agricultural Library

Survey of small-enterprise chicken operations in the United States

Elsevier B.V.

The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) Small-Enterprise Chicken study was conducted to better understand bird movement and biosecurity practices of commercial poultry operations having fewer than 20,000 chickens. A stratified random sample of 2511 operations having 1000-19,999 chickens was selected from a list maintained by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), based primarily upon data from the 2002 Census of Agriculture; 1789 (72.1%) operations participated in the study. Over one-half of operations were contract operations with breeding birds, and one-fourth were contract operations without breeding birds. Only 17% of operations were independent (noncontract) operations. Independent operations were primarily table-egg producers and to a lesser extent, growers. Independent operations were more likely to have birds other than chickens, to allow outdoor access to birds, and had less stringent biosecurity requirements compared to contract operations.

Preventive Veterinary Medicine

Volume 90

Number 3-4

204-210