Poultry health management

General sign of ill health
•Chicken huddling together
•Coughing, sneezing, rapid breathing
•Discharge from mouth and nostrils
•Dullness, poor appetite, drowsing/closed eyes
•Diarrhoea/ coloured droopping- greenish, yellow, white, bloody
•Ruffled feathers
•Pale combs & wattles
•Presence of worms in the faeces
•Paralysis of legs & wings and turned or twisted necks
Common Diseases

a)Newcastle Disease (NCD)
•It is a viral disease of poultry that spreads very fast via airborne droplets through sneezing of infected birds
•The virus can be carried by wild birds, through contaminated eggs, clothing, shoes & contaminated equipment.
•As mortality is often 100% in  young chickens, NCD is probably the most important constraint to family poultry development.
•The disease affects birds of any age but young ones are more susceptible. Mortality in older chicks is usually lower, but egg production is usually severely reduced.

Symptoms/ Signs
•Dullness, coughing, sneezing & gasping
•Nasal discharge & excessive mucous in the trachea
•Rapid breathing is accompanied by gurgling noise in the throat
•Nervous signs, characterised by twisting of neck, sometimes combined with dragging of wings & legs.
•Early loss of appetite resulting in greenish diarrhoea
•The most obvious sign of NCD is very sudden, high mortality often with a few symptoms having had time to develop.

b)Fowl pox
•It is a viral disease of poultry that can be transmitted by mosquitoes & other blood sucking insects.
•The disease tends to be seasonal, occurring after mosquito breeding times.

Symptoms/Signs
•Difficult breathing through open mouth, sneezing, gurgling noise in the throat.
•Loss of appetite
•Eyes & nose discharges
•Death mainly due to suffocation by mucous( cheesy growth in the trachea)
•Pox lesions also occuro
•Mortality rate can be 100% in growing chicken but lower in adult birds.

c) Fowl Cholera
• This is a contagious disease that affect all types of fowls. It is often transmitted by wild birds or other domestic birds, & spreads by contamination of the feeds or water & by oral or nasal discharges from infected birds.
• The incubation period is 4-9 days, but acute outbreaks can occur within 2 days of infection.

Symptoms/ Signs
• Sudden death within a few hours of showing the first signs
• The respiratory form is characterised by gaping, coughing & sneezing
• While in the septicaemic form there is diarrhoea with wet grey, yellow or green droppings.
• In the localized form is, the signs are lameness & swelling of the legs or wings joints.
• In acute cases, the head & comb colour change to dark red or purple. If infection is localized in the region of the ears, a twisted neck(torticolis) can sometimes be observed.
• In chronic cases the comb os usually pale, with swellings àround the eyes & discharge from the beak & nostrils.

d)Marek’s Disease

• The disease is caused by virus which is spread from an infected chicken to a non infected one through the air, poultry dust, by contact, sometimes by faeces. Greatest susceptibility is from 6-26 weeks of age.

Symptoms
• High mortality
• Paralysis of legs and / wings
• Difficult breathing
• Whistling & circling movements
• Unilateral & bilateral blindness

Control measures
- Vaccination of birds at day one (at hatchery)
-Procure genetically resistant stock
-Good hygiene/ sanitation.

e)Gumboro (Infectious Bursal disease)
• Acute, highly infectious disease of young chicken
• Has high morbidity & mortality in affected birds
• Reduces  bird’s ability to develop immunity against other diseases

Transmission
• Direct contact (bird to bird), contaminated litter, faeces, air, equipment, feed, insects & wild birds.

Symptoms
• Ruffled feathers, tremors, strained defecation, loss of appetite & dehydration. Reduced movement coupled with unsteady gait, white diarrhoea, prostration & death
f)Fowl Typhoid
-Commonly affects adult fowls
-Incubation period is 4-5 days & 2 days later the bird becomes depressed & loses appetite
-The colour of the wattles &;combs becomes dark red
-The droppings becomes yellow
-The birds closes their eyes & keeps their heads down
-Usually the affected chickens die within 3-6 days.

g)Coccidiosis
• Caused by protozoan parasite of the intestine
• Causes very heavy losses in poultry particularly upto the age of 12 wks

Symptoms
-The chicks lose weight & their appetite
-Their feathers becomes ruffled & soiled
-Combs are pale
-They tend to huddle together in corners
-Droppings are watery & greenish/ brown in colour often containing blood.

Control measures
Preventive
-Use of Bifuran / coccidiostat in feeds at all times
-Keep the litter dry  n loose & keep chicks isolated in freshly sterilised pens

Curative measures
-Use Bifuran in the water according to the manufacturer’s instructions
-Isolate sick birds
-When the attack dies down disinfect litter & sterilize pens