---
title: "Biosecurity in Poultry: Why Truck Washing Is the Weak Spot"
description: Learn why proper truck washing is crucial for poultry biosecurity and how consistent practices can help prevent bird flu outbreaks on your farm.
image: https://blog.hydrochemsystems.com/hubfs/Biosecurity%20in%20Poultry%20Why%20Truck%20Washing%20Is%20the%20Weak%20Spot%20Blog%20post.png
---
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## Biosecurity in Poultry: Why Truck Washing Is the Weak Spot
October 23, 2026
by [Keith Bailey](https://blog.hydrochemsystems.com/author/keith-bailey)
Ask a poultry farmer what's hardest about biosecurity, and truck washing won't top the list. It's quick, it's routine, and it feels handled. That's exactly the problem.
Temperatures drop. Leaves change color and fall. Birds gather into larger flocks and head south. To most people, fall is a beautiful time of year. But you know migration season brings its own danger: a higher risk of bird flu.
The virus behind the current outbreak is H5N1, a highly contagious strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). It's been in U.S. commercial flocks since 2022. In early 2025, it pushed egg prices to[record highs](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-bird-flu-has-sent-us-eggs-prices-skyrocketing-2025-02-21/). When it hits a farm, the flock is lost. And before that farm can restock, it has to pass a USDA audit for the new birds to be covered.
In a 2024 report, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) shared what egg producers said were the hardest parts of biosecurity.
Few called vehicles hard. Only[12.5 percent](https://aphis.prod.usda.gov/sites/default/files/hpai-challenges-implementing-biosecurity.pdf) said keeping shared vehicles cleaned and disinfected was quite or extremely challenging.
A tire spray at the gate is easy. So is a quick rinse before the feed truck pulls in. Those jobs go to whoever's free, and they get done fast.
But easy jobs are the ones nobody watches. When the day runs long, they're the first to slip. And bird flu doesn't care how easy the job was, only whether it got done on the last truck.
## **Easy depends on who's working that day**
The same survey shows where farmers feel the strain. More than half of egg farms, 52.5 percent, said hiring new workers was quite or extremely challenging. About 22.5 percent said the same about enforcing daily biosecurity.
Only 12.5% of egg farms called vehicle cleaning hard, but more than half struggled to hire the crews who do it. Source: USDA APHIS, 2024.
At Hydro-Chem Systems, we see what it looks like[whenever washing is done by hand](https://blog.hydrochemsystems.com/simple-biosecurity). Crews get tired and rush. Tires get sprayed and cabs look clean, while undercarriages and wheel wells, the hardest spots to reach, get the least attention.
The research lines up. In an[APHIS study of 40 egg farms](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2023.1229008/pdf) from the 2022 outbreak, 82 percent of farms that avoided infection washed feed trucks. Only 50 percent of infected farms did. Uninfected farms were also more than twice as likely to have a permanent wash station, 41 percent versus 17 percent.
*Egg farms that avoided bird flu in 2022 were more than twice as likely to have a permanent truck wash station. Source: APHIS case-control study, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2023.*
The researchers separated permanent stations from ones put in after the outbreak raised alarms. That distinction matches what we see in the field. A wash that shows up after a scare is a reaction. A wash that was running before anyone was worried is a habit.
The study was small, and the authors note cleaning quality is hard to measure, so treat it as a strong signal rather than proof. A[2025 study drawing on turkey farm data](https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70271129) points the same way. Vehicle wash stations were among the practices most strongly tied to lower bird flu risk.
## **What a poultry biosecurity assessment checks**
USDA offers[two free, voluntary assessments](https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-poultry/biosecurity-assessments) for poultry operations not affected by bird flu. Then it shares up to 75 percent of the cost to fix the highest-risk problems found. Depending on flock size, that's[$2,500 to $25,000 per premises](https://usbiotechnologyregulation.mrp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/faq-hpai-biosecurity-assessments.pdf) for farms raising 500 or more birds.
The assessment doesn't just read your plan. It checks whether your plan matches your farm, and your trucks are part of that.
- **Biosecurity Incentive-Focused Assessment (BIFA):** reviews your plan and physical measures, including vehicle, tool, and equipment sanitization.
- **Wildlife Biosecurity Assessment (WBA):** maps what draws wild birds to your property. Vehicles aren't named, but the APHIS[audit tool](https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/biosecurityaudit.pdf) flags standing water as a bird attractant. A wash pad that drains poorly can work against you.
Then there’s the audit nobody volunteers for. The Biosecurity Compliance Audit Program (BCAP) is required for farms that had bird flu or sit in a control area, before new birds are covered by federal indemnity.
It uses the same audit tool as BIFA, which requires tire cleaning and a logged visit for service crews coming from other poultry farms. It also checks that what your plan describes at the entrance, such as a truck washing station, is actually there.
A plan that says every truck gets washed is easy to write. Proving it on review day is the hard part.
## **What a habit looks like**
John Thiebeau doesn't decide which trucks get washed. At Weaver Brothers Inc., an egg producer and Hydro-Chem Systems customer, that call is already made. If a vehicle is headed to a live animal farm, it goes through. When bird flu risk climbs, vehicles bound for the company's plants join the line.
The line is long and mixed. Semis, feed trucks, company cars, and personal vehicles all take the same route. John's crew starts low, on undercarriages and wheels, before anything else.
What stands out is how rarely it stops. The wash runs around the clock, through cold that drops to 10 below. In eight or nine months, the longest it's been down is about an hour.
That's the difference between a task and a rule. A task waits for someone with time. A rule runs whether the crew is fresh or finishing a long shift. The truck at 2 a.m. gets what the truck at 8 a.m. got.
[Watch John walk through a biosecurity truck wash.](https://hydrochemsystems.com/automated-truck-systems/biosecurity-wash/)
## **Before your assessor arrives**
1. **Request the assessment now.** Email poultry.biosecurity@usda.gov or call 844-820-2234. APHIS is prioritizing egg operations in the top egg-producing states, so other farms may wait longer.
2. **Count what crosses your gate.** List every vehicle type in a normal week: feed, live haul, egg, manure, rendering, service, and personal. Check each against what your plan says happens to it.
3. **Watch the last truck.** Pick a long day and see what happens at the gate after the crew is tired. That's the wash your assessor is really asking about.
4. **Ask about wash infrastructure.** Cost share covers[specific upgrades the assessment identifies](https://usbiotechnologyregulation.mrp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/faq-hpai-biosecurity-assessments.pdf), and other items are reviewed case by case. Ask your assessor whether wash equipment qualifies before you plan around it.
A permanent wash is a capital decision, and cost share tops out at $25,000 per premises, so plan for it to cover part of the cost. Contract growers may also need integrator sign-off.
Staying clear pays in more ways than one. When bird flu drove egg prices to records in early 2025, the producers who avoided outbreaks and weren't locked into long-term pricing came out ahead. The farms with birds still in the barn had eggs to sell.
The easy part of biosecurity in poultry only stays easy when nobody has to think about it. Make the wash a rule every vehicle follows, not a task that depends on who's working that day.
[See how a biosecurity wash facility is laid out.](https://blog.hydrochemsystems.com/biosecurity-wash-facility-layout)
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