Despite reports of a fresh outbreak of Avian Flu in the country, farmers and traders said chicken and eggs are safe for human consumption. Oluwakemi Dauda reports on the other issues affecting the poultry business.

POULTRY diseases are harmful deviations from the normal state of health of the chicks. Signs of diseases include standing apart from other birds, lack of appetite, loss of weight, decreased production, retarded growth and high mortality.

The prevention of diseases, however, is better and cheaper than the cure. The chances of success are higher if farmers adopt the following principles.

They must buy strong and active chicks from disease-free breeding stocks. It is not good to patronise hatcheries known to have produced or sold birds with pendulous crop, crooked toes and curved spines.

Feeding balanced ration to the birds:

A balanced ration contains adequate amount of essential nutrients in correct proportions. Faulty rations will cause high mortality, poor growth and low egg production. Therefore, it is essential to buy poultry feed from reputable producers who are patronised by many good practicing farmers in your locality.

Provision of healthy environment for birds:

Favourable environmental conditions like dryness, good drainage, separation from other species of birds or other animals on the same farm, adequate and suitable shelters and sitting farms away from farms reduce disease problems.

A good farmer must eradicate and control transmissible diseases like fowl typhoid, fowl cholera, newscastle disease and fowl pox and chronic respiratory diseases, which may cause heavy, loses among flocks.

It is also good to remove from the flock or premises birds that have recovered from particular diseases for they remain carriers or reservoirs of the infective disease organisms.

Farmers may also isolate absolutely adult birds from young ones. It is preferable to buy your replacement stocks as day-old chicks and not as started pullets to avoid introduction of diseases from other flocks into your farms and it is not advisable to rear turkey and chickens on the same farm.

• It is also necessary to control strictly the movements of natural carriers of diseases. Such carriers are men, animals, wide birds, moving vehicles, old feed sacks, poultry crates and flowing streams which may have had contact with other poultry farms visitors, especially other poultry farmers, feed sales, men, and service men are chief offenders. Avoid visiting farms suffering from disease outbreak.

• Do not allow the same attendant to care for adult and young birds at the same time because young birds are highly susceptible to diseases to which adult may have acquired some immunity.

• When visitors must be unavoidably admitted into the farm, foot bath should be provided outside the door of the house for the disinfection of shoes worn by the visitors.

• The foot-bath should contain a solution that is effective against virus; bacteria mould worm egg and occidiosis oocysts. Suitable disinfectants are barrow 80, Izal, Malathion. The solution should be renewed daily. Clean and disinfected over-alls should be provided for all visitors. Visitors and even attendants make it a point of duty to dip their feet in the solution when entering and coming out of the poultry house.

• Moreover, hoes or scrapers used in pens accommodating adult birds should not be used in the brooder houses for they are possible source of infection if they are not properly cleaned with disinfectants.

• It is good to protect feed from dampness and other source of infection, never feed mould feed. Spilled feed around feeders easily get mouldly and contaminated feed. Spilled feed around feeders potential source of disease. It may also attract rats and mice.

• Water containers in deep litter house should be placed on box like stands covered from wire-netting to prevent damp spots around the water points. Wet litters are breeding places for disease organisms and parasite eggs.

• However, in battery cages, water must not be allowed to get into the feed troughs, because it eliminates damps, sour and moodily feeds, feed wastages as well as development of maggots.

• Therefore, it is emphasised that these sanitation practices cannot be substituted for veterinary attention he should be consulted immediately when the need arises. Also, do not medicate your birds without veterinary recommendation for it can be dangerous and expensive by veterinary services but the professional prescription of veterinary doctor can only be effective when sanitation is done excellently.

• Poultry diseases can be divided into specific and non-specific diseases. The specific diseases include those caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites, while the typical or non-specific diseases are due to nutritional deficiency.

Viral diseases:

• There are also so many viral diseases, but those commonly seen in poultry houses are gumboro disease, fowl pox and new castle disease. There are no specific treatments for those diseases but their control mainly depends on vaccination and good hygiene.

Gumboro disease:

• This is an highly contagious viral disease of young and adult chickens, which usually occurs between three and six weeks of age. It can also occur earlier than this period say two weeks of age. This disease can be identified by sudden onset, depression, dropping of wings, whitish, watery diarrhea, prostration, trembling, vent pecking, rapid spread and high mortality.

• The disease affects adult bird. Once affected, the birds lose appetite, become dull and have discharged from nostrils and eyes. Wart-like scabs appear around the base of the beak, face comb, wattle and the eyelids. The disease spread slowly but there is great reduction in egg production and low fertility in breeding birds.

New castle disease:

This is another deadly viral disease of birds. Its symptoms and mortality depend on the strains of causative virus. Newcastle disease is manifested clinically in affected birds by dropping wings dragging of legs twisting of head and neck, circling and waling back ward mostly after drinking water. The birds will also exhibit coughing, gasping, depression, inappetence, inco-ordination and templing; soft-shelled, poor quality eggs are laid. Egg production may also drop to zero there are rapid spread and high motalities.

The are also bacterial diseases: A few common ones are fowl typhoid, fowl cholera, infections coryra and chronic respiratory disease.

Fowl typhoid:

This is a bacterial disease, which, like viral diseases, can be prevented by vaccination and good hygiene. The first sign of this disease can be sudden death among the flock. This is followed by loss of appetite, increased thirst, yellowish-green diarrhea, pale comb and wattle. The affected birds becomes depressed and have dropping wings. The diseases spread rapidly and causes high mortality rate.

Fowl cholera:

This disease can also be prevented by vaccination. The occurrence of this disease can also be prevented by vaccination. The occurrence of this disease is usually sudden with dead birds being the first sing of infection.

Other symptoms include profuse green-yellow diarrhea, loss of appetite, increased thirst, blue head parts, difficult breathing and swollen joints, combs, wattles, eyes and facial tissues.

Infectious coryza:

Mostly birds affected with this disease have swollen tissues and wattles. The occurs when birds eat moudly feed or litter. A typical example of this class of disease is brooder pneumonia (aspergillus’s). Any affected chickens exhibit gasping, difficult breathing and dry cough. There is high mortality in young chicks and poults.

Nutritional deficiency diseases:

Birds with deficiency diseases have retarded growth, low egg production paralysis and poor hatchability of eggs produced by affected birds.