May households keep chicken in their backyard but the most common challenge faced by the farmers is ill health of the chicken.
Avoiding diseases is very vital in poultry production and this is achieved by keeping high bio security measures. Diseases are of economic importance in poultry production because they cause losses during the production cycle. The losses can be in form of death of the birds, decrease in production of the birds or the amount of money incurred in controlling and preventing the diseases.
Disease prevention tips
The design of the poultry house is important in preventing disease. The design should be in such a way that the birds do not get in touch with their excreta for example building a poultry house with a raised floor such that the birds excreta falls on to the ground and is removed when cleaning.
Practising an all in, all out method of poultry management where a given batch of chicks is brought in, reared and all sold off then another batch comes in after the previous batch is out and the poultry house, drinkers and feeders have been washed and disinfected. Also limiting the number of visitors on the farm.
Following a strict vaccination schedule where birds are vaccinated against infectious viral diseases.
Maintaining high cleanliness of both feeders and drinkers. Automated feeders and drinkers make this easy and minimizes contamination of feed and the water.
Regular monitoring of the birds for early detection of infection. Before beginning poultry, it is important that you have a training on disease identification and treatment.
