Avoiding early chick deaths in your flock

The single most important factor in keeping poultry healthy is maintaining good hygiene. Over the years, most poultry experts have highlighted daily operational challenges poultry farmers encounter. These include high and volatile feed, energy, and transport prices. Unfortunately, this trend is likely to continue, impacting farmers as a tax on their cost of production. Today, we look at costs associated with disease or early chick mortality and what farmers can do to improve chick viability. Sourcing of day-old chicks: The single most important factor in keeping poultry healthy is maintaining good hygiene. Healthy Parents and hygienic hatchery conditions contribute greatly to disease-free chicks. A good chick depends on the interactions of parent breeder farm management, their health, and incubation management. Select a good supplier of quality chicks, since chicks from sick parents hardly perform at the commercial level. Establish a good relationship with your flock supplier. A good chick should be strong, clean, alert, active with bright eyes, inquisitive and walk well. It should not have any deformities on the head or feet. The navel should be well-healed and clean. A good chick should on average weigh between 38-42 grams, depending on the age of the parent donor. Day 1-7 common ailments: Chicks hatched from a mouldy hatchery environment can easily contract brooder pneumonia (aspergillosis). Unfortunately, there is no treatment for this disease. Chicks hatched from dirty eggs tend to have open navels and suffer from navel illness or yolk sac infection. These birds need to be treated with antibiotics after a sensitivity test at a lab. Other common conditions seen in the first seven days include nonstarter, starvation, and pasted vents due to over-temperature. Dehydration and slipped tendons are also common in the first week. A visit to the vet is essential. Always give multivitamins (Vitamin A, B, D, E, K) for the first three days. Un-matched animal husbandry practices: This starts with a well-thought-out cleaning and disinfection process after the removal of the old litter. You must use plenty of water and detergent and follow it up with terminal disinfection using a potent disinfectant applied according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Monitoring the effectiveness of cleaning and disinfection procedures will ensure that chicks are placed in a clean environment and remain healthy and productive through depletion. Excellent brooding: Brooding must be properly done by providing enough heat, 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. Low brooder temperatures (chilled chicks): If chicks are chilled, they tend to huddle together, especially under the brooder. They have poor early feed intake and are likely to die in the first week. It is essential to maintain the proper temperatures during brooding as chicks which are chilled on the first day of life will be stressed, have increased mortality, dehydrated, retarded growth and have a higher incidence of ascites (water belly). High temperatures (overheated chicks): This occurs when chicks lie prostrate with their head and neck stretched out on the floor. A majority of them will pant and increase water consumption, leading to distended crops and intestines. They tend to move away from the heat source and seek cooler parts of the brooder. Overheated chicks will be dehydrated, resulting in high mortality, ranting/stunting syndrome and poor flock uniformity. In severe cases, there will be higher mortality due to cardiovascular failure (flip-over). Quality animal nutrition: Depending on the breed or strain of your birds, high-performing breeds will require high nutrients 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 is likely to be compromised and are likely to become sick. Good feed will show high intake with maximum body weight achievement. You must also provide enough feeding equipment, which is 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 of good quality. [Dr Messo is the company veterinarian, Kenchic; watsonmesso@yahoo.com]

Avoiding early chick deaths in your flock

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