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Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment Vol.10 (3&4): 567-571. 2012
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Mapping poultry farms in the UAE utilizing GIS technology Moustafa A. Fadel, Ahmed S. Hussein* and Mohammed Al Maamari Poultry Nutrition and Management, Department of Arid Land Agriculture, Faculty of Food and Agriculture, UAE University P.O. Box 17555, Al-Ain, UAE. *e-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected] Received 20 July 2012, accepted 10 October 2012.
Abstract In this research paper a GIS map was developed for 15 commercial poultry production farms, conservatories and AlAin Wildlife Park in the UAE using ArcGIS10.0®. The developed map contains layers of information for farm coordinates, bird population and type of product(s), breed, and source of chicks, annual production, litter production and slaughter house. Additional layers of information include populated residential areas and street map in addition to an imagery map to study the overlap between establishments containing birds and the surrounding environment to evaluate the potential transferable risks. It was found that the major poultry farms are located within an area of 11,112 km2 which represents 13.29% of the total area of the country. The distances between farms ranged from 2.5 to 177.7 km where most of the farms are located on or very close to national highways. Google Earth® was used to study the historical changes in distances between one poultry farm and the surrounding residential area between 2003 and 2010. Key words: GIS, poultry farms, UAE, biosecurity, environment.
Introduction Animal biosecurity is a major concern in societal and international security systems where investments in animal production worth trillions of dollars and need to be protected. Furthermore, food supply constancy is a critical factor in a societal stability. Although, because of socio-economic impacts of bio-security issues, it is too difficult to find any traceability or bio-security research works in the Arab World. Many Arab countries were affected dramatically by the avian flu and mouth to foot diseases that resulted great social and economic losses 1. Mapping of the UAE poultry farms, utilizing GIS technology is a part of proposed biosecurity system developed by Fadel and Hussein3. Visualizing poultry farms information makes it easy for specialists to identify relative distances and overlapping among farms and to do other societal activities as well. More updated details have to be integrated to the map to help predicting outbreaks before it erupts and to conclude where the following farm is for warning it, where early prediction helps to start a disaster management plan swiftly. Golan et al.5 stated that the characteristics of good traceability systems vary and cannot be defined without reference to the system’s objectives. Different objectives helps to drive differences in the breadth, depth and precession of traceability systems. Breadth describes the amount of information the traceability system records. Depth of traceability system is about how far back or forward the system tracks. In many cases the depth of a system is largely determined by its breadth. Precision reflects the degree of assurance with which the tracing system can pinpoint a particular food product movement or characteristics. Fadel and Hussein 3 who quoted National Avian Influenza Crisis Management Plan in the United Arab Emirates for emergency response to bird flu, stated that seven factors can
assist in determining a confidence in a country’s disease transmission risk assessment: (1) effective disease surveillance, (2) transparency in surveillance and its findings, (3) effective containment of disease outbreaks, (4) maintenance of public infrastructure, (5) maintenance of public trust, (6) ability of the media to report on these factors, and (7) timely, accurate reporting to the WHO and other multilateral organizations. The benefits of premises identification system integrated with GIS maps are: quicker mapping of the quarantine area, first 24 h are the most important, provides quick response to limit disease spread, provides timely testing to move birds to market, minimizes down time and other emergencies — floods and water quality issues. Simão et al. 8 quoted Jankowski et al. 6 and Voss et al.10 that the spatial planning support systems literature contains numerous references to tools that have been specifically designed to support either the analytical side of spatial planning or the communicative side. During the last decade, efforts have been made to develop an integrative tool, capable of dealing with both sides of spatial planning within a unique framework. National Biosecurity Manual 7 presented biosecurity buffer distance guidelines shown in Table 1. These guidelines should not be interpreted too prescriptively as effective biosecurity is achieved through a combination of measures. Where the buffer is measured from either the nearest shed walls for older type shedding or from the centroid of the mechanical ventilation system of the newer tunnel ventilation sheds. On the other hand, Guidelines for the Establishment and Operation of Poultry Farms in South Australia, developed by the Environment Protection Authority 2 suggested the buffer distances surrounding
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Table 1. A guide on biosecuruty buffer distances. Farm type New farm Units in large farm complex Farm complexes Breeder farms Duck or waterfowl farms
Species Fowls/turkeys/other avian species eg. ratites, quail Fowl/turkeys or other avian species Fowl/turkeys or other avian species Fowl/turkeys or other avian species Duck, waterfowl
waste disposal areas as listed in Table 2. USAID 9 listed the recommended isolation distances for Grandparents (GP) farms, Parents, Layer and Broiler farms in Table 3 . Table 2. Buffer distances surrounding waste disposal areas amenity distance (m). Amenity Distance (m) Urban residential zone 500 Rural farm residence not owned by poultry 100 sheds Public area 50 Public road - significant use 50 Public road - minor use 20 Any watercourse as defined by a blue line on a 1:50,000 50 current SA Government topographical map
Table 3. Isolation distances between various poultry-related facilies. GPs
Parents
Layer
Broiler
km
km
m
m
km
km
m
m
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
km
m km
m
km
m km
m
km
Materials and Methods An extensive data sheet was developed to acquire detailed information about production system in each of the visited farms. The following information was listed: company name, address, contact information, GPS coordinate, type of product (broiler/ layers/hatchery), source of chicks, breed, number of birds/year, 568
number of houses, total annual production, litter Buffer (m) production, litter buyers, slaughterhouse availability, distance to slaughterhouse and feed source 1000 information. Data were collected from major 200 - 500 commercial poultry farms in the UAE; a collective of > 2000 poultry farms was developed utilizing ArcGIS 10.0® 2000 - 5000 from ESRI. (Table 4a and 4b). 5000 Meteorological data was collected from five weather stations which are located close to the poultry farms. Wind speed and direction were added to the GIS map in two layers . Win_Jul and Wind_Aug contain the recorded data in July and August, respectively, where wind in those two months recorded the highest annually. Results and Discussion GIS maps of the poultry farms in the UAE: Fig. 1 displays the developed GIS map of the commercial poultry farms in the UAE. It contains several layers of information; some of them are shown such as farm location, major cities, roads, villages and weather stations. Some are not shown, such as density of population. ARCGIS analysis concluded that all the registered farms are located in 11,112 km2 which represents 13.3% of the total UAE area. It is obvious that commercial poultry farms distribution is correlated to the distribution of the large cities in the country while all the farms are located in the Eastern and Northern regions where the Western region has no commercial farms at all (Fig. 2). Figs 3 and 4 display the meteorological data collected from the weather stations. Analysis included that most of wind head towards was South-West direction in both July and August. Wind speed ranged from 8.2 to 12.0 km/hr in July where it ranged from 5.6 to 13.7 km/hr in August. ArcGIS 10.0® was used to represent and analyze the collected data as shown in Fig. 4 and Tables 5 and 6. Using the ArcGIS 10.0, the following conclusions were drawn: 1.The distance between RAK Poultry & Feeding farm and Degdaga farm is the least among the calculated distances among poultry farms in the country. 2. Farms crossing a 20 m buffer of the roads: An analysis was carried out to find out the farms which do not comply with the 20 m distance to the road. Boarders of two farms in both Dubai and Sharjah found less than 20 m away from the national highway. 3. Major poultry farms are located within an area of 11,112 km2 to serve the major cities around it. 4. No villages were located within 100 m of any of the studied commercial farms. 5. With a 20 km buffer of the large cities, 4 farms are intersecting with inside the residential area boarders, furthermore, Al-Ain zoo is already very close to highly populated areas in Al-Ain city. 6. More researches about projected cities growth will be useful for urban planning and relocation of some farms in addition to licensing new farms. The collected data are listed in many tables such as Table 4a and 4b which contain an information about a company name, annual production, litter buyer, distance to slaughterhouse and source of chicks. Most of the farms receive their chicks from Europe, USA or KSA where few of them use locally hatched chicks. It was found that litter production ranges from 600 to 27,500 tons/year; most of this amount is utilized by local fertilizer company where it is more than 10 km away from some of the farms. On the
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.10 (3&4), July-October 2012
Table 4a. Litter and sloughter house information. Company
Amount of litter (ton/year)
Abu Dhabi Company
Layers litter around 11,000 ton/year broiler litter around 4,000 ton/year. 600 tons 6,000 tons There is distributor in sharjah and in Oman and it send to the malls in Oman and UAE and rest of the gulf 7,500 ton\year 6,500 ton 27,500 ton
Al Ain Poultry Company and Aljazeera farms Modern poultry farms
RAK Poultry & feeding company Al Khazna Farm Al Rawdah
Litter buyer information Address Grand mills for flour and feed in (AbuDhabi ). Emirate factory fertilizer factory In the same city, 10 km away
Where is the slaughter house; (Distance) Slaughter house inside farm and the distance is 500 m far away. 500 m. No slaughter house in the farm N.A.
Give to schools for free UAE for the fertilizer plant Abu Dhabi
In the same farm 500 m of site management 2 km
Table 4b. Coordinates, source of chicks, feed and production information. Area/ Company
coordinates
Source of Chicks
Number of Houses
No. of Flocks/year (Annual production)
Feed producer
N24 25.755 E 55 20.5033
N.A.
Broiler : 8 Layer : 14
Broiler : 8 Layer : 14
Grand Mills Abu Dhabi
Al Ain Poultry Company
N: 24. 1913 E: 55. 4884
Layers: KSA Broiler-Hatchery eggs: USA
Broiler: 35; Layer: 6
Layers: 5 Broiler: 260
Grand Mills Abu Dhabi
Aljazeera farms
24 58' 12"N, 55 29' 41"E
Europe, KSA
15
30,000 - 70,000
local
24.170729, 55.317442
Brazil
25
N.A.
local
Modern poultry farms
25°22'25.06"N 55°24'35.90"E
MPF’s parent company
N.A.
N.A.
distributor
RAK Poultry & feeding company
N\ 25° , 40.453' E \ 55°, 57.473'
KSA/ Germany
Boiler:48 Layer:8
Layer:\ 108,000 Boiler: 960,000
The same farm
24 59 11 N, 55 25 33 E
Germany
78
467
N.A.
(Abu Dhabi Company
(Al Khazna Farm)
Al Rawdah
UAE Poultry Farms Figure 1. UAE poultry farms biosecurity map.
other hand, 10 companies have to send the broiler to slaughterhouses 500 to 2000 m away. Transporting such amounts of litter and live birds on the highway represents a potential risk of broadcasting pathogens on other farms sharing the same highway and in addition to the environment. At least one of the farms gives it away to local schools without treatment which imposes a potential risk of students’ health problems. Of the surveyed farms 65% are closer than 200 m of national highways or small-scale farms. One farm is located 6 km away from an animal preserve. It was found that, in some locations poultry production units started for long years before the residential areas grown to surround them and created a serious risk of bird-human epidemics like the avian flu to be easily exchanged. On the other hand transporting of poultry litter via highways to organic fertilizers treatment plant may broadcast pathogens to the poultry houses sharing around the same highway. It was found that layer of production of the surveyed farms ranges from 5-110 million eggs per year and 5-11 million birds per year. Two farms have both layers and broilers while two have either layers and hatchery or broilers and hatchery in the same site. According to historical images from Google Earth®, residential areas are growing fast and some of the farms are already within 500 or less of the poultry farms. 0 12.525 50 75
100
Urban growth and biosecurity: The experimental farm of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture has two poultry houses with a
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Figure 3. Weather station in Ras AlKhiema.
Figure 2. Distribution of poultry farms in major cities.
Figure 4. Weather stations in Sweihan, Rawda and AlAin.
Table 5. Inter separation distance between the farms in km. Area
Abu Dhabi Co. Al-Ain P. C. Al-Jazeera Al-Khazna Modern Poultry Co. RAK Saha Al-Ain Zoo Al-Rawda DIGDAGA
Abu Dhabi Co. 26.9 61.4 24.6 106.7 154.1 73.6 52.1 65.2 154.6
Al-Ain P. C.
AlJazeera
26.9 84.2 9.7 131.9 173.8 95.6 34.7 90.06 174.2
61.4 84.2 86.9 48.4 93 16.3 87.8 8.2 93.8
Al-Khazna
Modern Poultry Co.
RAK
Saha
24.6 9.7 86.9 133 177.7 98.4 43.4 90.5 178.3
106.7 131.9 48.4 133 65.8 43.6 136.9 42.8 64.3
154.1 173.8 93 177.7 65.8 79.6 166.9 92.3 2.5
73.6 95.6 16.3 98.4 43.6 79.6 95.2 19.8 80.77
Al-Ain Zoo
AlRawda
DIGDAGA
52.1 34.7 87.8 43.4 136.9 166.9 95.2 95.3 167.5
65.2 90.06 8.2 90.5 42.8 92.3 19.8 95.3 93.2
154.6 174.2 93.8 178.3 64.3 2.5 80.77 167.5 93.2 -
Fujairah 132.5 144.2 89.6 150.4 97.8 69.3 95.2 66.3 76.2 124.4
Al-Ain 54.8 39.0 87.9 48.8 135.5 162.3 94.5 162.6 92.2 6.5
Table 6. Inter separation distance between the farms and large cities (highly populated area). Company Abu Dhabi Company AlAin P. C. Al-Jazeera Al-Khazna Modern Poultry Co. RAK Al-Rawda DIGDAGA Saha Al-Ain Zoo
570
Abu Dhabi 97.5 114.7 122.6 105.4 149.9 203.6 118.9 205.1 138 148.16
Dubai 92.1 121.7 39.5 120.8 13.9 76.2 31.8 78.9 38.7 126.4
Sharjah 108.6 136.1 51.2 136.4 5.8 58.8 45.5 60.9 45 139
Ajman 114.5 139.6 56.2 142 14.5 49.6 51.7 50 46.7 143.8
Umm Al Qwain 132.7 156.3 73.7 159.6 35.6 29.7 69.7 31.6 61.6 154.2
Ras Al Khaimah 170.5 191.5 112.3 195.6 79 16.9 109.5 18.6 98.5 184
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capacity of about 15,000 birds. The farm was established more than twenty five years ago outside the city of Al-Ain in Abu Dhabi Emirate. The city growth rate was vast enough to surround the originally isolate remote farm with houses. In 2002 the distance between the closest house and the farm was 630 m. This distance shrunk to 500, 360 and 300 m in 2003, 2005 and 2010, respectively.
USAID 2009. Biosecurity Guidelines for the Commercial Poultry Industry in Bangladesh. Department of Livestock Services, Ministry of Fisheries & Livestock, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. 10 Voss, A., Denisovich, I., Gatalsky, P., Gavouchidis, K., Klotz, A., Roeder, S. and Voss, H. 2004. Evolution of a participatory GIS. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 28(6):635–651. 9
Conclusions The surveyed commercial poultry production units around the UAE are located in a 13.29% of the national land close to major cities with high population density. Within a 20 km buffer of the large cities, 4 farms are intersecting with inside the residential areas boarders, furthermore Al-Ain zoo is already very close to highly populated areas in Al-Ain city. It was found that distances between farms ranged from 2.5 to 177.7 km where most of the farms are located on or very close to national highways. Google Earth® was used to study the historical changes in distance between one poultry farm and the surrounding residential area between 2003 and 2010. Having more complete GIS map for poultry farms is needed in order to manage poultry industry in a more accurate way. The developed map is not complete and should be integrated to weather maps to provide an excellent tool to handle in case outbreaks erupted and to help authorities a professional tool to organize future projects in this field considering the fast growing residential areas and urban development. Serious decisions should be taken by local authorities to remove poultry farms from urban areas to protect investments, society and the environment. Acknowledgements This research work was funded by the UAEU grant research project # 1432-06-02-10. References Abdelwahab, E. M. and Hafez, H. M. 2011. An overview of the epidemic of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus in Egypt: Epidemiology and control challenges.Epidemiology and Infection 139:647-657. 2 Environment Protection Authority 1998. Guidelines for the Establishment and Operation of Poultry Farms in South Australia. March 1998. 3 Fadel, M. A. and Hussein, A. 2010. UAE poultry farm premises ID and Biosecurity. Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment 8(3&4):540544. 4 FAO 2007. Proceeding of the Technical meeting on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Human H5N1 Infection, Rome, August 2007. 5 Golan, E., Krissof, B., Kuchler, F., Calvin, L., Nelson, K. and Price, G. 2004. Traceability in the U.S. Food.Supply: Economic Theory and Industry Studies. Agricultural Economic Report No. (AER-830), 56 p. 6 Jankowski, P., Nyerges, T., Smith, A., Moore, T. J. and Horvath, E. 1997. Spatial group choice: A DSS tool for collaborative spatial decisionmaking. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems 11(6):577–602. 7 National Biosecurity Manual 2008. Biosecurity Guidelines for Poultry Producers. http://www. AG1155 Biosecurity Guidelines for Poultry Producers- Department of Primary Industries.mht. Last accessed, 19 September 2012. 8 Simão, A., Paul, J., Densham, D. and Mordechai (Muki), H. 2009. Webbased GIS for collaborative planning and public participation: An application to the strategic planning of wind farm sites. Journal of Environmental Management 90(6):2027–2040. 1
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