While Australia’s commercial poultry sector has maintained exceptionally high biosecurity standards for decades, the recent detection of the H5N1 strain in wild birds has reinforced an important message: preventing disease is always more effective than responding to an outbreak.

For poultry producers, every layer of protection matters. From controlling vehicle access to disinfecting equipment and managing visitors, successful biosecurity relies on hundreds of small processes working together every day.

One area that often receives less attention than it deserves is the movement of people.

Australia’s Current H5N1 Situation

Australia has recently confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in wild seabirds for the first time. Although there is currently no evidence that the virus has entered Australia’s commercial poultry industry, authorities have significantly increased surveillance and continue to encourage producers to review and strengthen their biosecurity practices.

This is particularly important because wild birds can travel enormous distances, making early detection and prevention essential for protecting commercial poultry operations.

Government agencies continue to recommend that poultry businesses:

• Maintain strict farm biosecurity protocols.
• Limit unnecessary movement between poultry sites.
• Control visitor access.
• Ensure staff understand biosecurity procedures.
• Report unusual bird illness immediately.
• Maintain accurate records of farm access and movements.

Useful resources for producers include:

• Australian Government – Bird Flu Information
• Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
• Wildlife Health Australia
• Queensland Department of Primary Industries
• Australian Veterinary Association

These organisations continue to publish practical guidance for producers as the situation evolves.

Biosecurity Is More Than Fences and Footbaths

When people think about poultry biosecurity, they often picture physical controls.

• Vehicle wash-down stations.
• Protective clothing.
• Footbaths.
• Controlled entry gates.

These remain essential components of every commercial poultry operation.

However, modern poultry farms have become increasingly complex.

Large producers may operate multiple farms, breeder facilities, hatcheries, feed mills and processing sites spread across large geographic regions. Staff regularly move between locations to perform maintenance, veterinary work, quality assurance, production management and administration.

Every movement introduces another opportunity for contamination if appropriate procedures are not followed.

The Hidden Biosecurity Challenge: People Movement

Consider a typical day on a large poultry operation.

• A maintenance technician visits one production site in the morning before travelling to another facility after lunch.
• A veterinarian inspects several sheds across different farms.
• An area manager visits six locations during a single day.
• A contractor completes work across multiple properties during the week.

Every one of these movements needs to comply with the organisation’s biosecurity protocols.

If someone accidentally enters a lower-risk site after visiting a higher-risk quarantine area without completing the required procedures, the risk of disease transmission increases.

This isn’t simply about recording attendance.

It’s about understanding where people have been, when they were there, and whether those movements comply with established biosecurity rules.

During a disease investigation, having access to accurate movement records can significantly improve the speed and accuracy of tracing activities.

What Good Poultry Biosecurity Looks Like

Leading poultry businesses recognise that effective biosecurity is built on multiple overlapping layers rather than a single solution.

These typically include:

1. Clearly Defined Biosecurity Zones: Commercial poultry operations commonly divide facilities into different quarantine or biosecurity zones based on production type, bird age or disease risk. Access between zones should be carefully controlled and documented.
2. Visitor and Contractor Management: Every visitor represents a potential biosecurity risk. Recording who enters a site, why they are there and where they have previously visited forms an important part of disease prevention.
3. Vehicle Management: Vehicles can transport contaminants between locations. Many operations require wash-down procedures and maintain vehicle movement records to reduce this risk.
4. Staff Training: Technology alone cannot protect a farm. Every employee should understand why biosecurity procedures exist and the role they play in protecting livestock.
5. Digital Audit Trails: Manual sign-in books have served the industry for many years, but digital systems provide faster access to historical records, improve accuracy and support compliance during audits or disease investigations.

Together, these measures create a stronger and more resilient biosecurity framework.

Case Study: Improving Workforce Traceability Across a Large Queensland Poultry Operation

One of Australia’s larger poultry producers in Queensland recognised that managing workforce movement across multiple production sites was becoming increasingly complex.

With employees, contractors and operational staff travelling between locations every day, maintaining accurate records of site access had become an important part of their overall biosecurity strategy.

To strengthen this process, they implemented EMP Track, a workforce tracking system designed to record employee movements across their poultry operation.

The system provides a digital record showing:

• When workers enter and leave each site.
• Which locations have been visited throughout the day.
• Historical movement records for authorised personnel.
• Movement between sites with different quarantine classifications.

This visibility helps management monitor compliance with existing biosecurity procedures and reduces the likelihood of workers inadvertently moving from higher-risk areas into lower-risk production sites without following established protocols.

Rather than replacing existing biosecurity practices, the system complements them by providing accurate, accessible information that supports operational decision-making.

The result is improved traceability, stronger compliance monitoring and greater confidence that workforce movements align with the organisation’s biosecurity requirements.

Lessons for the Wider Poultry Industry

Every poultry business is different.

Some operate a single family-owned farm.

Others manage dozens of production sites across multiple regions.

Regardless of size, several principles remain consistent.

• First, biosecurity should be viewed as an ongoing management system rather than a collection of individual procedures.
• Second, people movement deserves the same level of attention as vehicle access and equipment hygiene.
• Finally, accurate records are invaluable during audits, investigations and emergency response activities.

Whether those records are maintained using paper processes or digital systems, being able to quickly understand who has been where is becoming increasingly important for commercial poultry operations.

Looking Forward

Australia’s poultry industry has earned an international reputation for maintaining high biosecurity standards.

Protecting that reputation will require continual investment in training, procedures and practical technologies that support day-to-day operations.

As the industry responds to evolving disease threats such as H5N1, businesses are increasingly recognising that biosecurity is about more than physical infrastructure. It also depends on having clear visibility of the movement of people, vehicles and equipment across every production site.

Digital workforce tracking is one example of how technology can strengthen existing biosecurity programs without changing the underlying principles that have protected Australia’s poultry industry for decades.

For organisations operating multiple farms or production facilities, improving workforce traceability may prove to be one of the most valuable additions to an already strong biosecurity strategy.

About EMP Track

EMP Track is a workforce tracking and site access solution developed by Deltonic t/a UniGuard. It helps organisations monitor authorised personnel movements across multiple sites, maintain accurate digital audit trails and support operational compliance in environments where location history and workforce visibility are important.

While originally developed for workforce management, EMP Track has proven particularly valuable in supporting biosecurity procedures within large commercial poultry operations by providing accurate records of personnel movements between sites with different quarantine classifications.

Interested in using EMP Track for your business? Contact our team today.

The post Bird Flu Biosecurity in Australia: Why Managing People Movement Is Becoming Critical for Commercial Poultry Farms appeared first on Staff & Asset Tracking with Workforce Management Software by UniGuard.

Instead of purchasing an off-the-shelf workforce management software package, another option that is increasing in popularity is contracting a software developer to create a custom-built system for the business. There are many reasons for managers to want to take this approach, as a quality designed system can be an asset to the organisation. A poorly built system, however, can be disastrous.

Something to Call Your Own

Among the many reasons people want to go down this path, one of the significant driving factors is the increasing number of different software systems that businesses are required to use to be able to function in our online world. Business managers understandably want to streamline as many areas of their business as possible for efficiency.

Another factor is the desire to get an edge over the opposition using unique software features and analytics that go above and beyond what other people in the industry have access to.

Where it Can Be Difficult

The difficulty often faced when approaching custom designed software is that most business owners are very experienced in their industry, not in developing software and their understanding of the pitfalls can be somewhat limited. It is naïve to think that all developers who are looking to further their own opportunities are likely to point out all the downsides of this approach and/or any of their own limitations.

The truth is that, on the surface, software is deceptively simple. Even considerably basic apps are complex to write, if a quality result is required. Most people would never consider making other equally complex products, such as for example, their own motor vehicle. Just as a poorly designed car can do a lot of damage, so can poorly designed software.

Streamlining Without Compromising Capability

Another big motivator for creating a custom-built platform is to consolidate numerous different applications into one. Not only does this potentially save costs, but it also means that people are not opening and closing different software applications all day.

The problem with this approach is that software built for different purposes generally require completely different layouts and functionality. It would be like trying to build a vehicle that has both the features of a pushbike and a semi-trailer truck.

Software that incorporates too many diverse features are often unstable and expensive to build, tend not to have unreliable results and are complex to learn and operate. This is why, for example, Microsoft maintains the individuality of their Office Suite programs in preference to amalgamating them all.

Some people in a business may benefit from having two or even three programs rolled into one, but most people in that business will never use these extra features and will find using the software too difficult. There is a reason nobody has successfully marketed a floating, flying car yet. Very few people want all of these vehicles rolled into one.

Then There’s What You Cannot See

Generally, by the time a business owner has decided to go with building their own software, they know all the features they want and don’t want in the application. They base this on what they do and don’t like in other software they have used.

Whilst this approach makes complete sense on the surface, they are often unaware of all the important hidden features that make the software safe, secure and reliable, lending the situation to software design that does not deliver on expectations. This is a major stumbling block for first time software builders.

Finding a good developer is another challenge.  Developers who are used to talking to people at their level about this subject, can seem to talk a different language when they talk to you. A program can be written many ways, and each developer has their own unique knowledge and skill level, they may not know the best coding and simply use what they have always used. The specialised process itself, of software development enables opportunities to cut corners, without detection by the client until it is too late.

Making Sure Today’s Savings Are Not Tomorrow’s Costs

One area where costs can blow out with employee tracking software or any software, is the hardware. This can be costly in several ways.

To keep costs down, a staff tracking app can be designed to work on a limited number of smartphone devices, maybe only certain Android phones for example. The problem with doing this is that it is then harder for the company to save money by getting the staff to use their own phones, as all employees must have exactly the right phones.

The alternative to this is for the company to supply phones, but then run the risk of the phones being repeatedly damaged and destroyed.

Building an app that can work on a range of phones, including both Android and iPhone, and keeping these apps up to date with the latest operating systems, as well as honouring older models becomes awfully expensive very quickly.

As well as keeping up with the latest operating systems, the software may have to be patched to protect against emerging security threats, as well as the ongoing updates that go with software bug fixes. Software bugs will happen no matter how good the developer is. Constant updates to keep up with Windows, IOS or Android changes are necessary.

Keeping the data on a secure server long term is the other big ongoing cost. This is a cost that software companies can minimise for their customers through the economics of scale.  

What Is Your Time Worth?

Ultimately, developing software, is a long, drawn-out complicated process with no guarantees on the quality of the result. It is common for projects to run over time, and over budget, even for experienced software development companies such as UniGuard. Naturally, well designed software with all the functionality that is needed can be more expensive.

For an inexperienced company, the development cost can easily exceed $1 million, for software that ends up being no better, or sometimes ever worse than the ready-made staff tracking software they could have purchased for a fraction of this price. Did I mention maintenance to keep up with changes in operating systems?

Many business owners who have commissioned their own software admit to being disappointed with the product they eventually receive. Unlike ready-made software, it is impossible to try out the software before you commit money to the project. Ultimately a lot of thought must go into good design, and this can only be guided with knowledge and experience.

Another Alternative

An attractive alternative that may not readily come to mind; is getting an established company, such as UniGuard who already have a well-maintained employee tracking software in the market, to offer a solution to you. Contact us today and we will be incredibly happy to show you how.

Would you like to know more about how UniGuard can customise a software package to your needs , click here to find out more?

The post Developing Your Own Custom Software appeared first on Staff & Asset Tracking with Workforce Management Software by UniGuard.