Three reasons your birds are dying before maturity

Dear Dr Messo,

My chicks seem to suffer from a disease that we are yet to crack. Several of them have succumbed to the illness already. This is not the first time we are witnessing this and our agrovet also doesn’t seem to understand what it is since all what was prescribed never worked. In the current attack, we were advised to administer biotrim, which obviously hasn’t worked. We also tried administering trimovet with similar results. What could be happening to my chicks and could you also elaborate on how aloe vera helps chicken?

Agnes

Kikuyu,

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Dear Agnes,

To arrive at the right diagnosis of a case like this, it is very important that we get detailed history. This will include the breed or strain, the number affected, mortality rate, vaccination history, housing structure, litter conditions, feeding and water consumption, brooding and type of fecal dropping. A postmortem then needs to be performed on the dead birds. When in doubt, further laboratory tests must be done to confirm the disease in question before the right medication is prescribed.

What I am essentially saying is that this case needs a Vet visit and a detailed assessment done to rectify the situation and help the birds recover. However, as poultry farmers, we want to be able to raise our birds with minimal use of antibiotics by concentrating on three things - quality animal nutrition, superb gut health and un-matched animal husbandry practices. Here are some of the things farmers need to do to avoid the need to use antibiotics or aloe vera and grow their birds with good and accurate prediction of a successful outcome in performance.

1.  Un-matched animal husbandry practices

This starts with a well thought-out cleaning and disinfection process after removal of the old litter. You must use plenty of water and detergent and follow with terminal disinfection using a potent disinfectant applied according to manufacturer recommendations. Monitoring the effectiveness of cleaning and disinfection procedures will ensure that chicks are placed into a clean environment and remain healthy and productive through to depletion. Sampling the house for microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, yeast and mold) after cleaning and disinfection will provide trends that help to improve farm hygiene.

In addition to the above, brooding must be properly done by providing enough temperatures, good air quality and minimal ventilation. Successful brooding ensures the development of the immune, digestive, skeletal, thermoregulatory and feather systems early enough in preparation for growth and development.

2.  Quality animal nutrition

Depending on the breed or strain of your birds, high performing breeds will require high nutrient from balanced formulated diets to match their performance requirements. Besides growth, nutrients are also required for maintenance. If birds are not adequately fed, their immunity are likely to be compromised and they are likely to become sick. Good feed will show high intake with maximum body weight achievement. Feed birds to body weight standards, change feed type based on body weight gains. A good feed will be associated with good intake, good body weights, good egg weight, high laying percentage and better persistency. You must also provide enough feeding equipment which are well distributed. Water is also another important nutrient in a bird’s diet that is mostly taken for granted. Birds need a lot of water to grow properly and efficiently. This must be supplied all the time and it must be clean. My rule of thumb: give birds water that you also can drink.

3.   Superb gut health

Once your flock are given good husbandry practices, your other concern is appropriate vaccination programme. Consult your chick supplier and veterinarian to design the best vaccination schedule for your birds and your local region. I have never fed aloe vera to chickens. What I do know is that if the areas I have mentioned above are taken seriously, there is no need to routinely give flocks antibiotics or herbal treatments.

Dr Watson Messo is Head Lab and Technical at Kenchic.

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