POULTRY HEALTH MANAGEMENT

Healthy broiler chicks

Sick broiler bird

Effective poultry health management is an important aspect of poultry production.

The best fed and housed stock with the best genetic potential will not grow and produce efficiently if they become diseased or infested with parasites. . Infectious disease causing organisms will spread  very quickly through a flock because of the usual high stocking densities of commercially housed poultry.

Poultry health management primarily aims at:
1. Preventing the onset of disease or parasites.
2. Recognising at an early stage the presence of disease or parasites, and
3.Treating all flocks that are diseased or infested with parasites as soon as possible and before they develop into a serious condition or spread to other flocks.
To be able to do this it is imperative to know how to identify that;
i.The birds are diseased,
ii. The action required for preventing or minimising disease and
iii. How to monitor for signs that the prevention program is working.

Basic principles poultry health management are:

• Prevention of disease
• Early recognition of disease
• Early treatment of disease

As much as is possible disease should be prevented. It is cheaper and less damaging to avoid or prevent disease than it is to treat it. However, it must not be assumed that all disease can be prevented. Inevitably, some will get past the defenses, in which case it becomes Paramount that the condition be recognised as early as possible to allow treatment or other appropriate action to be implemented as soon as possible to bring the situation under control to limit damage to the flock.

Read also;
Prevention of Cannibalism in poultry
Layer management and Egg production
Effective Rat Control 


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