Drinkers, if not cleaned well, can be a source of infection. FILE PHOTO
Coccidiosis is a common disease in chickens and is prevalent among different kinds of animals, but it is species-specific. This means if you have livestock with coccidiosis they will infect your chickens and vice versa. However, coccidiosis does not discriminate amongst the avian species. Ducks, turkeys, geese can pass the disease to chicken and vice versa.
Coccidiosis can be fatal but with early diagnosis it can be easily and economically treated.
All chickens carry the coccidiosis organism in their bowels but only some will develop the disease. The disease starts with an unsporulated oocyst (a very simple analogy is to think of a microscopic egg), which is passed through droppings.
Conditions for infection
It can lay dormant in the soil for up to a year and does not become infectious unless it gets the opportunity to sit for several days in wet and humid conditions, for example, in and around waterers and feeders that have not been cleaned properly.
When a chicken eats a sporulated oocyst, either through contaminated water and food or simply during its usual scratching around in the earth, the digestive acids of the chicken’s intestines will break down the hard protective layer of the oocyst.
The oocyst will hatch and invade the cell lining in the small intestine. The parasite goes through several life stages, multiplying inside the chicken and at each stage rupturing more cells within the bowel, resulting in ulceration.
The coccidia oocyst will be expelled in the chicken’s poop and can then go on to cause infection to your other hens if they eat it.
Symptoms
The incubation period is only about eight days and the symptoms can present either gradually or suddenly. It is not uncommon for a chicken to appear fine one day and very sick or even dead the next.
The most common symptom you might notice is blood or mucous in the droppings.
However, do not confuse with caecal droppings chickens shed naturally that is also brown/red in colour.
Also note, “blood in poop” is not necessarily always a symptom, so also look out for the following: Weak, listless chickens not moving around much, huddling together as if cold, pale comb and skin, a loss of appetite, ruffled feathers, weight loss, chicks failing to grow, inconsistent egg laying or not at all, and diarrhoea.
Note that all these symptoms could be as a result of other diseases, so the only way to know you are dealing with coccidiosis is to talk to a veterinary professional.
Prevention
Basic hygiene is your first step for prevention. Make sure your coops are clean and dry. Also, do the following:
• Ensure water is clean and fresh
• Keep feeding areas clean and dry and do not throw food on the ground where it can be contaminated as they chicks sometimes tend to pick it up when food is over in the troughs.
• Ensure your girls have enough space – coccidiosis will take off in an overcrowded area. Chickens need four square feet of space each in their coops.
• Provide medicated starter feed for chicks. If your chicks have been vaccinated against coccidiosis, do not give them medicated starter feed, it will simply cancel out their vaccination.
• If introducing new members to your team of chickens, keep them quarantined for a minimum of two weeks, for the protection of everyone in the hen house.
Above all, good management. Do not be a lazy chicken farmer (is there such a thing?) Cocci is passed by infected chickens in their dropping. As the other chickens peck around the barnyard, they can ingest infected feces. With this in mind:
• Clean waterers and feeders every time you refill them
• Keep bedding clean and dry
• Control rodents since cocci can be transferred by rodents (although it doesn’t infect them)
• When handling infected chickens, clean clothing and footwear since cocci can be transported on them.
There is evidence for organic treatment. Evidence from a section of Kenyan poultry farmers shows crushed pawpaw seeds can be used to cure intestinal worms and Coccidiosis, which responsible for over 50 per cent of poultry deaths.
To cure worms, scientists gave chickens three grams of powdered papaya seeds for every kilogramme of live weight.
Treating coccidioides requires a higher dose over a longer period of time. Crush the seeds and either mix them with feed or water.
Treatment (Conventional treatment)
First, separate the infected from the healthy ones and then treat. There are different options but the most recommended is Corid iquid or powder solution dissolved in the chickens’ drinking water.
Since infected birds do not eat, treating them through their water is the best option. Use Corid 9.6 per cent liquid solution. 9.5cc to 5 litres of water.
Treat for five days mixing up a fresh batch every day. Follow up the treatment with vitamin supplements, especially vitamins A & K.
For more about poultry farming, register for Daily Monitor/Seeds of Gold Farm Clinic on May 7
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment