Like humans and other animals, chickens also experience different health issues and diseases. For chicken breeders and farmers, sustaining the health of their fowls, of course, is utmost essential. So here in this article, we present the five most common chicken diseases every breeder should know, plus its symptoms, how to prevent and treat each of them.
Five Most Common Chicken Diseases
Most common chicken diseases vary as others can go unnoticed for days, weeks, or even months, while others can kill fowls in a matter of hours. Here are a couple of the most common chicken diseases most breeders experience:
Fowl Cholera
This chicken health condition is a chronic disease set off by Pasteurella multocida. Fowl Cholera can affect the chickens' tissues, joints, sinuses, infraohits, and wattles. It's most common in older chickens and hits more on roosters than in hens.
Fowl Cholera Clinical Signs and Symptoms
Fowl Cholera signs include loss of appetite on top of greenish diarrhea, ruffled feathers, swollen comb, joints, swollen purple wattle, lameness, oral, nasal, and ocular discharge, and sometimes sudden death.
Fowl Cholera Treatment
Fowl Cholera treatment involves depopulation. Plus a thorough cleaning and disinfection of buildings and equipment. Your poultry shouldn't be allowed on the disinfected ground for a couple of weeks.
Antibiotics may lessen deaths among your chickens, but they won't eradicate the organism Pasteurella multocida in your flock. It's crucial to note that medications can prevent more deaths among your chickens. But it may carry on when you continue the treatment, which means that your drug didn't get rid of P multocida from your poultry.
For treatment for fowl cholera, early medications, as well as the correct dosages, are critical. Because of the development of multi-resistant strains, it's also crucial to do sensitivity testing in drug selection.
Sulfamethazine or sulfadimethoxine generally inhibits deaths among chickens when you put them in their feed or water. However, breeders should be extra cautious when using sulfas because it's toxic and shouldn't be fed to hens laying eggs for eating. Tetracycline antibiotics in the chickens' feed in high levels (0.04%), in their drinking water, or administered is also beneficial.
Fowl Cholera Prevention and Control
Fowl Cholera Medication
It's best to go to a poultry vet on the medications for fowl cholera before you begin any medication to diminish your poultry mortality rate in a severe epidemic. It's because these prescribed cholera medicines have restrictions on sales and uses.
Fowl Cholera prevention and control would mean taking out the afflicted chickens from the flock.
Fowl Cholera Vaccination
The best recommendation before going for fowl cholera vaccination is to consult a vet. It's because there are several strains of the bacterium P. multocida. You need to find the specific diagnosis of the disease through laboratory testing as it helps you with the selection of the proper vaccine as well to be part of the Fowl Cholera prevention and control.
Fowl Cholera Biosecurity Measures
Make sure your poultry is healthy and comes from a breeder or producer of a good reputation. The source must also be disease-free.
Sanitation and disinfection of the chicken housing and equipment will prevent fowl cholera. More so, keep your domestic animals away from your flock and always have a rodent control program.
Proper biosecurity procedures are beneficial for preventing the disease from spreading not only in your flock but also controls for the access of humans, automobiles, and tools.
Coccidiosis
Coccidiosis is a typical chicken intestinal disease that can be fatal. It affects chicks primarily, according to some reports.
An intestinal parasite called Coccidian protozoa sticks to the intestinal lining and prompts the disease Coccidiosis. When protozoa attach themselves to the chicken's intestines, it begins their damage right there and spreading to the guts that the chicken starts to bleed.
Coccidiosis Clinical Signs and Symptoms
Coccidiosis signs include loss of appetite on top of diarrhea, ruffled feathers, weight loss, and the lack of ability to absorb nutrients from feeds and water.
Coccidiosis Treatment
Coccidiosis is curable when diagnosed timely. And to control the outbreak, it's best to treat each chicken in the flock. The most popular Coccidiosis treatment is Amprolium that inhibits the parasites' capacity to uptake and multiply. Amprolium is added to the chickens' water supply. But, if the afflicted chickens can't eat nor drink, oral medication is best.
You should complete the treatment of Amprolium for seven days. Administering Amprolium is an ongoing process even when your chickens have already been treated with Coccidiosis. It's to prevent the risks of being infected with the disease again.
Coccidiosis Prevention and Control
More feasible and effective vaccination techniques were developed and introduced over the decades, such as administering gel-spray or coarse-spray cabinets at the hatchery. These new techniques resulted in additional consistent and improved defensive immunity. There was an increase in coccidiosis vaccines. But it still stays somewhat minimal compared to anticoccidials drugs in the chickens' feed.
There's also another technique of implementing live coccidiosis vaccines. It is the in-ovo injection procedure into embryonated fowl eggs at 18 days of development. This method allows accurate individual medicating and the early progress of immunity.
Avian Influenza
Avian Influenza describes as a disease caused by infection with bird flu type A Orthomyxoviruses. The viruses strike among wild aquatic birds anywhere in the world. However, the flu can affect domestic poultry and other avian (bird) and animal groups.
Avian flu is fatal once it's spread. This disease is a viral infection, but the wild aquatic birds and shorebirds are mostly asymptomatic carriers.
Avian flu viruses naturally do not contaminate humans. But, infrequent human contaminations with type A viruses have been reported.
Avian Influenza Clinical Signs and Symptoms
Avian Influenza signs include diarrhea on top of edema or fluid in the comb and wattles, nasal discharge, wet eyes, coughing and sneezing, ruffled feathers, purple discoloration or blueness of the head area, swelling, legs bleeding under the skin, and other bird flu clinical signs. Chickens also will have less activity, including foraging and their appetite, and even in egg production. Sometimes sudden death occurs as well.
Avian Flu Treatment
Contact the United States Department of Agriculture at 1-866-536-7593 immediately when you suspect that your flock has bird flu. As a chicken raiser or breeder, it's your responsibility to report it immediately to seek medical help for your poultry.
The consequences of not reporting it as soon as possible are more damaging. Your birds will merely agonize on a tormenting death that euthanizing them would be the best option. More so, you could face legal consequences when you don't report bird flu cases.
Avian Flu Prevention and Control
It's possible to prevent your chickens from acquiring bird flu. Still, there are many preventive measures any breeder can take to protect the flock.
Control Wild Birds
The most successful measure a breeder can protect his flock from Avian flu and other diseases and restrict or stop wild birds from getting near the chickens. That means you don't feed any wild birds as well and stop encouraging them to make a "stop-by" in your yard.
If you've been feeding wild birds already, make sure it's as far away from your poultry and change your clothes and boots and wash your hands after you provide them. It's also crucial to add a roof to your poultry's pen so no wandering aqua birds' droppings will fall into the pen.
Sanitize and Disinfect Regularly
To prevent Avian Flu and other fatal diseases to your chickens, it's evident that sanitation and disinfection are very vital.
- Make sure no wild birds have access to the feeders and waterers. Keep the feeders and waterers thoroughly clean as well all the time.
- Any piece of equipment you use in your coop, such as shovels and rakes, etc., should also be scrupulously clean.
- Make sure there are no feed spillages to attract wild birds.
- Clean and disinfect the coop at least once a week.
- Have a specific set of clothes and footwear you only wear when handling your chickens. More so, if you have another chicken flocks, have another set of clothes for them as well.
Never Share Equipment With Other Flocks
Do not share your chicken troughs, shovels, rakes, or any other poultry equipment from a nearby chicken flock. It also includes not using any egg cartons again from friends or neighbors that also breed chickens.
Regulate Visits and Visitors
Do not bring any of your chickens to any poultry events and limit your visit to other poultry as well. If you do drop in on other flocks or poultry events, make sure you thoroughly wash your clothes and shoes to ensure any diseases will not spread. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that one of the best approaches to avoiding infections is contact. Furthermore, limit the people visiting your coop to prevent them from bringing any disease to your chickens.
Never Introduce New Chickens To Your Flock
Sometimes, a carrier of the disease doesn't show any symptoms yet. That's why it's best not to introduce a new chicken to your flock, as it may carry the disease already. A newly purchased or acquired chicken should be quarantined first for 30 days to guarantee it doesn't have the virus. More so, always buy your fowls from a reputable producer who takes sanitation and hygiene earnestly.
Fowl Pox
Avian Pox or Fowl Pox is exceptionally infectious. There are two different types of Avian Pox condition, the Dry Pox, and Wet Pox. These viruses cause chronic disease in all species and ages of poultry.
Fowl Pox Clinical Signs and Symptoms
Fowl Pox signs include distinct bumps that seem to be warts that are noticeable on the comb and wattle. On top of that, young chickens suffer stunted growth, and there's a decrease in egg production. Chickens also become lethargic, and on Wet Pox, fowls experience respiratory problems.
Fowl Pox Treatment
There's no cure for fowl pox, but there are relief measures for sick chickens more so. There are also precautionary measures to prevent secondary bacterial contaminations because of the lesions. Chickens not sick with Fowl Pox should be vaccinated before an outbreak.
To control secondary infections, put tetracycline antibiotics in the water, but it's best to consult a vet first. Treat the scabs with dilute iodine solutions like J. Crowe's Lugol's Solution. And apply ointment to soften scabs with two tablespoons of sulfur powder with ½ cup Vaseline. Apply this ointment to affected areas every day until lesions are cured.
More so, they sanitized their drinking water. Combine diluted iodine solutions into the chickens' drinking water. Blend one teaspoon of one percent iodine solution per gallon of water or mix only a half teaspoon of two percent iodine solution per gallon of water. This mixture should only be their drinking water until the outbreak drops. Also, clean the coops and run, removing hot debris from the place.
Fowl Pox Prevention and Control
- Vaccines available for chickens in most cases are pigeon pox virus. Through the wing web injection method, vets recommend this vaccine to chickens ages 8 and 14 weeks.
- The chickens injected with the vaccine now have the contact of a mild version of the active virus. That's why these chickens should be entirely healthy to avoid severe sickness.
- Practice proper biosecurity on your clothes to prevent avian fox to your healthy chickens.
- Control mosquitos appropriately.
- Quarantine new chickens as it should be.
- Day-old chicks and healthy chickens can be vaccinated with the wing-stick method against Fowl Pox. Consult your vet for more information on the Fowl Pox vaccination.
- Sanitize waterers every day by adding ¼ teaspoon of Oxine per gallon of drinking water to limit the extent of the Fowlpox virus in the course of the outbreak. After the outbreak, sanitize and disinfect the coop with Oxine weekly for a month.
Newcastle Disease
Newcastle disease is present in most countries worldwide as it's one of the extensive respiratory diseases in poultry that can spread quickly. Economic losses are one of the outcomes of this disease because of decreased chicken production and trading prohibitions, and high levels of deaths among chickens. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) listed Newcastle disease as a notifiable disease.
Newcastle Disease Clinical Signs and Symptoms
Newcastle disease signs depend on where the infecting virus has weakened the chickens. There could be a weakness in the digestive (diarrhea), respiratory (coughing, gasping, rales, and sneezing), or nervous system (tremors, twisted necks, paralyzed wings and legs, circling, paralysis, and spasms). Domestic poultry is more vulnerable to experience severe clinical signs compared to wild fowls. Mortality is fluctuating but can be as high as 100 percent.
Newcastle Disease Treatment
There's no distinctive cure for Newcastle disease yet. You can only provide antibiotics for three to five days to avoid secondary bacterial infections. But these antibiotics don't distress viruses. Also, heightening the brooding temperature for chicks by 5°F may help in decreasing deaths.
Newcastle Disease Prevention and Control
The prevention of Newcastle disease is through vaccination and adaptation of rigorous biosecurity and quarantine control procedures. Good dumping of the dead birds from Newcastle disease and zoning the area can also help keep the condition under control in proximate flocks.
Summary
You can boost your chicken health by providing feed supplements that function to improve the ingestion of nutrients. Most common chicken diseases have the same symptoms and high death rates. It's essential to take all precautionary steps to keep your fowls healthy.
When you feed your chickens a healthy diet for a more robust immune system, your flock will be healthier and able to resist any contaminants and infections. Regularly check for any disease symptoms and keep the affected ones quarantined from the rest of the flock so they won't spread the disease.
Furthermore, keep your coops, brooders, roosts, and runs adequately ventilated, sanitized, and disinfected. And make sure there's enough space for all your chickens to avoid overcrowding.
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