POULTRY NOTES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 32, 1 November 1930, Page 30

POULTRY NOTES

Treatment of Avian Coccidiosis

(By

“New Laid.”)

Avian Coccidiosis is one of the more formidable specific diseases of poultry—especially of chicks — and is associated With the photozoan parasite Einiera avitm, said D. C. Matheson, F.R.C.V.S., Royal Veterinary College, Edinburgh, at the World’s Poultry Congress. It is characterised by high mortality and lesions—particularly in the appendices (croca) —and occasionally in other organs. Outbreaks of coccidiosis are commonest in spring and summer amongst the growing stock. Mortality sometimes reaches 75 per cent. Survivors have received a setback from which recovery Is slow and Imperfect; they may become carriers and a source of Infection to other chicks. The disease is self-limiting, but the chick often dies before this limit is reached. Outside the chick, the parasite, once It starts to subdivide part or all of its contents Into a number of small parasites, cannot be killed by ordinary disinfectants. The parasite can subsist in the soil of a yard for twelve months. During sixteen years the writer has .investigated 47 outbreaks ; 33 were in chicks, nine were in pullets or older fowls. Coccidiosis and bacillary white dlarrhcea have been found in one chick. Chicks may develop coccidiosis and bacillary white diarrhoea have been found in one chick. Chicks may develop coccidiosis from one week old. A comparatively small number of turkeys and pheasants have been found suffering from coccidiosis. e

Intense congestion of the intestines and a marked distension of the appendices (creca) with whitish or brownish-yellow blood-stained semi-solid material may suggest coccidiosis, but a microscopical examination is necessary to confirm the suspicion. Care must be taken not to spread the disease, if post mortems of dead chicks are made on the farm.

Well-drained land is essential to prevent coccidiosis in a flock. Breeders should never have had the disease, nor have been associated with it. Eggs should be hatched in incubators In preference to under liens; clean eggs in 75 or 95 per cent, alcohol and water before setting; dip the eggs only and wipe dry. Keep ehieks isolated from adult stock for at least two months. Do not crowd chicks and keep everything to do with them scrupulously clean. Isolate new purchases for tit least a month. Adding 40 per cent, dried skim milk to the mash may be beneficial, if practicable, wire the chick runs to keep out other birds.

The coccidia of the crow, sparrow, and of many of tile singing and small perching birds belong to a different genus (Isospora) to that of the fowl, but sparrows, for instance, might carry infected droppings on their feet for short distances from yard to yard ; wild birds other than those mentioned 'might similarly introduce the disease; ducks, geese, and peacocks are possible sources of infection. Pigeons are suspected. If coccidiosis occurs, isolate affected chicks, killing and burning the worst affected. Burn nil droppings and litter, or mix with lime and bury deep (away from fowl-runs). Disinfect the shed floor at least twice a week while the disease lasts and once weekly afterwards. Clean and disinfect feed and water tins daily. Concrete floors in brooder houses help to fight coccidiosis. Dry feeding assists control. The use of powdered catechu in the drink-ing-water (one-third teaspoonfill to each gallon) is approved, but a little Epsom salts should be given first, if the chicks are strong enough to bear it. and this should be repeated during the catechu treatment. Inoculation may be serviceable in a heavily-infected flock or in a flock in an Infected district, but would introduce the parasite if done to a clean flock. The coccidia of fowls must ultimately nerish if the bird, nr at least the animal host, is not available, but this is a remote nossibility. Of 142C> fowls examined in this laboratory in sixteen years. 7.5 per cent, were affected with coccidiosis; also, out of two flocks consisting of 1094 fowls, which had suffered from coccidiosis ns chicks the previous year, 03 were carrying the disease. Vnlue of Milk for Chicks., Milk ns a food for bnby chicks serves two main purposes. In the first plnce It is one of the best things to help the chicks grow fast and be strong and healthy. In the-second place, milk is need-

ed because it is the best preventive of coccidiosis, and is even a cure in many cases. If milk is given from the start, however, it should not have to be used as a cure. Most chick troubles start in a place where lots of poultry raisers fall to look for them-—in a general weak and unhealthy condition of the chicks even before they get whatever disease alls them, writes Orden C. Oecholi, in “Standard Poultry Journal,” America. Weak chicks, which have not been given everything they need, have all they can do to. stay alive and wobble. When diseases come along they have not the extra power to fight them off, and the trouble starts. Healthy chicks which have had the right things to eat have plenty of extra energy, and in many cases they can throw off the disease germs without letting them get a iftart. Milk, therefore, plays a biff part in disease prevention by helping the chicks to be strong and vigorous. Milk gives them the protein they need for g ro , wth^.^ ra ’“® do not supply protein-enough. The one feed, cod liver oil and milk, takes care of the vitamin and protein share of the ehick ration. Milk prevents disease by boosting the chicks- along keeping them strong and healthy, inat has P already been mentioned. Milk prevpnfs disease in another way. .i. n Coccidiosis has long been known as the worst enemy, probably, of baby chicks. It sweeps in and takes them just, when they seem P to be getting a good healthy hold on life and it bowls them over by the dozens’ That is. not a nice picture, but it would be worse if the disease could not be checked. Coccidiosis can be checked, and there is actually no need for a single chick to die from it. The trouble all starts when the chicks run on damp, dirty ground, especially ground where adult fowls are running or did run the year before. Coccidiosis is caused by a tiny parasite which gets in the chicks’ intestines and burrows into the lining of the walls, causing weakness, loss of appetite, droopiness, and death. Dropings of infected birds carry the organisms out, and in damp, filthy spots they can live a year or more. Chicks picking up this filth even a year later will have, coccidiosis, and the trouble can easily spread through the flock. Clean ground, then, is necessary, so that there will be no filthy damp spots to hold the coccidia alive. In addition to keeping Hie chicks in general good health and Strength, milk acts aS a special preventive of coccidiosis by keeping the intestines of the chicks in an acid state. The disease organisms cannot live and Work when the intestines are kept acid by a steady diet of sour milk. Even if sweet milk is given to the chicks It will soUr in the crop, co it produces the necessary acid by the time it reaches the intestines. When chicks have all the milk they need, the droppings are watery and voided frequently. It means perhaps a little more work in keeping the brooder house clean and the litter dry, but is worth it. ■ Chicks given plenty of milk right from the start, and raised on clean ground or on wire, should never develop coccidiosis. It can be curried in many Ways, however, and the trouble sometimes breaks out when it is hard to sec where the infection came from. Eor Instance, ft can be carried in on the shoes of folk going into the house or yard. It it does break out, the answer is—more milk. Of late half a dozen or more of the leading experiment stations have advised, heavy feeding of milk as a treatment tor coccidiosis. Some advise giving a mash which contains 40 per cent, dried milk powder and giving nothing else but green food and water—no grain. This must not be given more than about two weeks, however, as it will cause very rapid growth. Semi-solid buttermilk can be given In increased amounts, with all other food taken away. Either of these ways will help stop coccldioss after it has shown up in the ilock, and several authorities now say that It is a good thing to give extra milk in one of these ways, a day or so out of each week, even before coccidiosis appears. Just another way of making an ounce of prevention do the work of a pound of cure.