Coccidiosis in chickens is a parasitic, infectious disease. The disease is an epidemic. It spreads quickly in the chicken coop, especially among young animals, and carries almost 80% of the poultry population. The most important thing is to notice the symptoms of the disease in time and take action. Coccidiosis can also be prevented by pre-vaccinating the young and observing the correct poultry standards.
To treat or slaughter sick hens with meat?
This disease is the scourge of many poultry farms. Coccidiosis in chickens, unlike young animals, is more often chronic. Such birds cannot reproduce full-fledged offspring, they are constant carriers of infection. Any deterioration in content may be accompanied by weight loss and egg laying of sick chickens. They can deplete and even die. It is believed that such birds do not make sense to maintain and treat. It is better when they are still in good weight, slaughter them with meat, and disinfect the chicken coop.
What is more profitable - to buy adult chickens or youngsters?
If you decide to breed a bird, then you should not buy an adult. It can be a chronic carrier of parasites. Coccidiosis in chickens is therefore dangerous because it cannot be determined during an external examination of an adult bird. It is worth making inquiries about the farm in which you want to purchase pedigree material, how well it is safe for diseases. For breeding, it is better to buy a pedigree egg or chickens. To prevent the chickens from getting sick, they need to be vaccinated or prevent coccidiosis.
Amyriosis (coccidiosis) in chickens is a disease that causes great economic harm to poultry farms around the world. Even if we exclude the mortality of young animals, the maintenance of such a bird is a disadvantageous business. The bird consumes food, as usual, but does not grow, practically does not gain weight, and laying hens cease to lay eggs. It is almost impossible to completely cure such a livestock; it is easier to slaughter it and replace it with healthy young animals.
What is coccidiosis?
Chickens have various parasitic diseases, one of which is coccidiosis caused by coccidia. Coccidia have 11 varieties, the most common are called aimeria tenella. Therefore, coccidiosis is also called emiriosis.
Coccidia enter the intestines of poultry with contaminated feed and water. Within a few days, they completely affect the intestines of the bird, causing bloating and hemorrhage. Nutrients cease to be absorbed by the body, toxins accumulate, causing poisoning. Oocysts with feces go outside, getting on the litter, in drinking bowls and feeders. They are eaten by another bird, and the disease spreads rapidly. If treatment is not started on time, then the chickens may die.
The greatest infection occurs when the bird is crowded, the litter is dirty and there is a lot of humidity, as well as poor-quality feed. Young chickens often get sick as soon as they are released on free-range. Eating grass and worms, they swallow coccidia oocysts. Bacteria of parasites for 9 months or more remain viable and, getting into the stomach of chickens, begin to multiply rapidly. Most of all, infection on the walks occurs in rainy, warm weather. Chickens bring parasites on dirty paws, from the paws they fall on the litter, in water and food. Chickens with shaggy legs are especially affected .
Coccidiosis in chickens: symptoms
Sick birds look lethargic and depressed. Mostly they sit in one place, laughing and closing their eyes. Chickens' appetite disappears, but they continue to drink water eagerly. The bowel movements become frequent, fluid, foamy and interspersed with blood. The feather around the cesspool is dirty from stool. Viscous saliva accumulates in the beak. In severe cases, convulsions and paralysis of the limbs may begin. With slaughter and death of the bird, the skin is noticeably bluish. Since before death she experiences severe anemia.
Amateur Poultry Mistakes
Many parasitic diseases of chickens develop precisely in subsidiary amateur farms. The fact is that in industrial poultry farms, the bird is mainly grafted and kept in cages. Only breeding stock is located on the floor for the convenience of insemination. They do not use the bird for a long time, there is a constant update of the herd.
In amateur farms, the bird is mainly kept on the floor of the barn and on the walks (free and open-air cages). Tribal lives for several years. Most often they try to cure a sick bird, and when it recovers, they continue to keep it on. And they receive from her already weakened offspring.
The litter in the shed where the bird is kept rarely changes, often just a layer of dry substrate is added on top. Thus, the barn, and the aviary, and the paddock are most often infected with oocysts, and the breeding herd is a hotbed of coccidiosis.
Often amateur poultry breeders acquire young chickens. Since chickens from 10 days of age to 4.5 months are mainly susceptible to coccidiosis, the acquired population is at risk.
It is profitable to buy young fish, because after a month they begin to rush, and by winter you can slaughter them for meat. But often, having bought beautiful hens, buyers become very disappointed after a week. First, absolutely healthy youngsters begin to get sick, sit on their feet, become lethargic and eat poorly. The hosts begin to treat them, but treated hens still remain carriers of the infection.
Why did the hens get sick?
Poultry farmers have been using the same barn, aviary, or paddock for years to keep chickens. Also feeding troughs, drinking bowls and other equipment are carriers of infection. Many do not even think that before importing a new bird, everything needs to be processed, the barn should be completely cleaned and the entire litter, as well as drinking bowls and feeders, replaced. Some poultry farmers plant a new bird to an already infected old one, and then they wonder why the young growth is sick.
In such situations, cases of mass mortality of young animals are not uncommon. Non-observance of the norms of maintenance finally affects, and the limit of coccidia oocysts causes an epidemic of coccidiosis.
Coccidiosis treatment in chickens
Coccidiosis treatment in adult chickens is unprofitable. You can cure diseased chickens, but they will remain carriers of the infection, so it’s better to immediately slaughter them for meat. It is necessary to treat young growth, in which signs of coccidiosis are manifested. But when they reach the desired weight, it is also better to slaughter for meat, and not used for breeding.
Poultry houses rich in breeding experience recommend methods to prevent the disease.
Coccidiosis Prevention in Chickens
- The first rule is to keep the young animals separate from the adult bird.
- Before the release of chickens and youngsters into the enclosure or free-range, as well as on the floor of the barn, it is necessary to conduct preparatory treatment. It is necessary to remove all the old litter and make disinfection. Lay new, clean and dry straw or sawdust.
- It is best to disinfect the room by burning walls, floors and equipment with a blowtorch, the main thing in this case is not to start a fire.
- Feeders and drinking bowls are well treated with disinfectants and boiling water.
- Monitor the quality of the feed and the purity of the water in the drinkers.
- Chicks should be kept in cages with a mesh floor for as long as possible so that droppings fall into trays.
After the young animals are released on the floor or in the aviary, drug prevention should be carried out on the 5th day. For this, it is best to use Baykoks or Interokoks. Dilute the product at the rate of 3 mg per 1 liter of water. Preliminarily, in the evening, the bird should not be given a drink, and in the early morning pour a therapeutic solution into the drinker. Before lunch, chickens should drink everything. There are remedies that mix in food. But here it is impossible to trace which bird ate how much. It is better to use drugs that are soluble in water.
The second time the medicine is given 25 days after the first dose. Next, young animals are given a diluted preparation for prevention after rains when the weather is wet and warm.
These medications do not inhibit chick immunity. With such care and timely medication, the bird practically does not get sick. Such chickens do not need to be treated, the breeding herd will always be healthy.
As can be seen from the above, the main thing in the maintenance of the bird is the purity and on time of these drugs. Never leave a sick bird on the tribe. It is better to immediately slaughter diseased adult chickens for meat.
Aviary
With an open-air cage, it is more likely that the bird will not get coccidiosis. An aviary for chickens can be made with a plank floor and with a walk on the ground. And in that, and in another case, it is better to use the litter, so that you can change the old and dirty to a new, dry and clean. Aviaries come with a roof and without a roof. With a canopy, of course, better. There is no dampness when it rains, the crows will not drag the chickens, and on a hot day they need a shadow.
An aviary for chickens is necessary not only so that they do not bring infection from outside. He protects them from predators. In addition, hens in the wild can climb into the garden and do a lot of trouble. And litter all over the yard and on the porch is also unpleasant. And in the aviary, chickens receive the necessary sunlight, fresh air and at the same time do not interfere with anyone and are protected.
Growing young
So many diseases around that the question arises of how to raise chickens without loss? It's no secret that chickens, like all babies, need warmth, cleanliness and high-quality food. As well as vaccination and prevention of coccidiosis disease with drugs.
Currently, the question of how to raise chickens from a weekly age does not cause great difficulty. One of the main conditions is maintaining good immunity in the chicks. For this, vitamins and minerals are needed. Now special bioadditives are being produced for feeding chickens and young chickens, which are poured in a certain proportion into the feed. This is “Chicken-Tuck” and “The Sun.” Premixes for chickens not only increase immunity, they quickly grow and develop from them.
Vaccination of chickens
Vaccination of chickens at home is quite simple. Coccidiosis vaccinations are done before the age of 9 days. Now the Avicox vaccine is very popular. It can be fed to chickens along with food or drunk with water. The main thing when vaccinating is to check the expiration date of the drug, observe the norms and write down the batch number and the number of vaccinations. Bottles for the drug must be disposed of. Vaccination is done once, it lasts for a lifetime.