Insist that flock supervisors and other who must visit several farms each day put on freshly disinfected boots before entering your house. Keep rodents and domestic pets out of your poultry houses. A single rat can easily destroy 50 pounds of feed per year. That can be tough on your feed conversion if you have very many rats. More importantly, rodents can act as carriers of avian diseases.
Domestic pets can also carry avian pathogens from one flock to the next.
Using cats inside the poultry house to solve your rat problem only substitutes one carrier for another. Healthy dogs and cats can carry the agents of avian diseases in their mouths and fur. Dispose of dead birds promptly in an incinerator or disposal pit. Chickens will eat dead birds left in a house, and this can serve to spread disease. If for any reason your flock is experiencing a disease problem, and your pit is too full to handle the increasing numbers of dead birds, contact your company immediately.