Occupational Health Hazards among Workers in Poultry Farms

Background: Poultry workers are exposed to a variety of occupational health hazards on adaily basis which invariably hamper their production and productivity over time. Aim of this study:Was to assess occupational health hazards among workers in poultry farms. Research design: Adescriptive design was used to carry out this study. Setting: Conducted at Poultry Farms in BenhaCity in two districts (Kafr Mnaker and Manchiet Azez ) which included 9 farms. Sample:Convenience sample was chosen in the selected settings including 80 workers. Tools: Two toolswere used to conduct this study, I): An interviewing questionnaire was used to assess; A) Sociodemographic characteristics of studied workers. B) Knowledge of studied workers aboutoccupational health hazards. C) Reported practices of studied workers related to safety measures foroccupational health hazards related to working in poultry farms. II): An observational checklist wasused to assess the environment conditions at poultry farms. Results: 42.5% of studied workers agedfrom 30 to less than 40 years old. 17.5% of them had good total knowledge level and 26.3% of themhad average total knowledge level, while 56.2% of them had poor total knowledge level regardingoccupational health hazards in work environment. Also 41.3% of studied workers had satisfactory tototal reported practice level and 58.7% of them had unsatisfactory total reported practice levelregarding safety measures. Conclusion: There were statistically significant relations between totalknowledge level of studied workers, marital status, level of education and monthly income, and therewas highly statistically significant relation between total knowledge level of studied workers andtheir total reported practices level. Also, there were statistically significant correlation between totalknowledge level, total reported practices level of studied workers and exposure to health hazards inwork environment. Recommendations: Applying occupational health programs to increaseknowledge and practices of poultry workers in order to ensure positive perception in poultry farms.