IN an economy where everyone is always trying to earn an extra dollar a lot of backyard industries are proliferating and one such industry is the poultry production and more specifically broiler production.Many such producers have not had any formal training in agriculture and the learning curve is always a teeth-gnashing experience for most of them.
Resultantly I am always inundated with questions from small scale farmers on production issues and invariably the questions are always about how to reduce mortalities in one’s flock.
This article therefore endeavours to address some of the questions. The primary concern for any poultry producer is to make money and hence the need to avoid losses.
Losses in broiler production are mainly from two fronts which are — mortality and feeding beyond the expected days due to market problems.
I will address the former. Mortalities in broiler production are mainly due to diseases afflicting your flock and there are three main factors that can contribute to diseases and these are management, environment and the chickens themselves.
Management factors which predispose your chickens to diseases are:
- Poor-quality food and water
- Poor hygiene and inadequate cleaning programme
- Leaking water bowls
- Rat and fly problems
- Overcrowding of chicks
- Chickens of mixed ages reared together
The environmental factors include:
- Too hot or too cold conditions in the fowl run. Your poultry house needs to have adequate ventilation without making it too hot or cold because either situations can cause problems
- Wet litter creates breeding ground for pathogens which will then affect your chickens. The litter usually gets wet from chicken droppings and water spillages.
- Dusty bedding
- High build-up of chicken droppings. Chicken dropping have ammonia which tends to build up in poorly ventilated houses causing respiratory diseases.
- Lack of air circulation
Chicken factors which predispose them to diseases are:
- Young chickens
- Weak second-grade chickens. Farmers need to learn to buy from reputable chick breeders and suppliers. The urge to cut corners ends up creating more corners for you to overcome!
- Chickens affected by other diseases
- Poor condition as a result of underfeeding
- No vaccination. This is even more important in layers production. Farmers have to abide by the stipulated vaccination regimes to avoid problems later in the life of the bird which will affect egg production.
Management of the disease within your production unit entails that you must act quickly at the first signs of disease.
The chickens must be treated, and the practice that may have led to the problem must be corrected to prevent the disease from occurring again.
You also need to consult your animal health technician or veterinarian to help you find a correct solution to your problem as soon as possible.
The veterinary officer will conduct a post mortem on some of your birds and ascertain the causative agent for the disease.
In poultry production as it is in most animal production systems, there are not many forms of treatment or in certain cases no treatment for some diseases, which is why prevention is so important.
Treatment is costly in two ways; firstly you have to buy the medication and the birds can still die despite your effort.
Secondly, the treatment remedies come with a withdrawal period before which the meat or eggs from the production unit cannot be provided for human consumption. This means if you are into egg production all the eggs produced during the active period of the drug or chemical should be destroyed and that can mean huge losses in income.
Imagine you are keeping 2 000 layers and 85 percent are into production it means you are throwing away 1 700 eggs every day until the withdrawal period of the drug is over and this can be anything from 14-21 days!
However, disease treatment will depend on the cause of the disease and if possible, try to separate all sick chickens from the healthy ones daily. The sick chickens should be handled and treated last to prevent the spread of the disease.
To prevent disease occurrence and spread in your flock you need to:
- Apply correct methods for raising young chicks (temperature, food, water, bedding)
- Disinfect and clean the housing of the different groups of chicks
- Maintain the correct stocking density (avoid over-crowding)
- Use the best quality food that is available and provide clean water daily
- Prevent the build-up of gases by cleaning and ventilation
- Control rats and flies
- Ensure that no people from outside your farm visit the chicken house to avoid importation of diseases
- Have bird-proof houses to keep out wild birds that eat the food and bring diseases to your chickens
- Feed and water bowls should be cleaned daily and fresh food and water should be supplied
- Houses should be warm in winter and cool in summer and well ventilated
- Dust causes irritation of the respiratory tract and the environment must therefore not be dusty
Again it is important for farmers without formal training to take time and attend some short courses which cover their area of interest and also to source reading material especially production manuals as these provide useful guidelines.
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