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Fish farming

Feeding Methods In Fish Farming

August 31, 2024 No Comments

The three major methods of feeding fish are;

1. Spot Feeding

2. Broadcast Feeding

3. Responsive Feeding

These are feeding methods that wield significant influence over the health and growth of the aquatic inhabitants.

Spot Feeding

Spot feeding is the feeding method that involves the strategic deployment of feed directly to targeted areas within the pond. Here, efficiency reigns supreme, as only the intended beneficiaries partake of the feast. It’s a symphony of control and accuracy, where wastage is minimized, and growth optimized.

In spot feeding, one side of the fish pond is targeted and the feed is thrown on that side and all the fish gather there for their share of the feed. Often, the stronger or active ones always get more of the feed.

Advantages of Spot Feeding

1. Reduced Feed Wastage

When you target specific areas, spot feeding minimizes the likelihood of feed being consumed by non-target organisms or sinking to the pond’s bottom, resulting in reduced wastage of feed

2. Optimized Growth

The precise control offered by spot feeding allows fish farmers to tailor feeding strategies to individual fish or specific groups, promoting optimal growth and health within the fish populate

3. Enhanced Water Quality

With less uneaten feed accumulating in the pond, spot feeding contributes to improved water quality by reducing the risk of nutrient buildup and subsequent water pollution.

Disadvantages of Spot Feeding

1. Labor Intensive

When you practice Spot feeding, it can be labor-intensive, requiring fish farmers to identify feeding hotspots within the pond and manually distribute feed to those areas

2. Technical Skill Required

Choosing and Implementing spot feeding effectively requires a certain level of technical skill and an understanding of fish behavior and feeding patterns.

3. Limited to Small Scale

While suitable for smaller ponds or operations with manageable stocking densities, spot feeding may become impractical in large-scale operations.

Broadcast Feeding

Broadcast Feeding, as the name suggests, is the method of feeding where the fish farmer throws and spreads the feed in almost all the places of the fish pond.

In this method, you don’t just throw in one corner or place but spread it to allow each fish to get its share wherever it is.

This is often suitable for large fish pond operations where it will be difficult for all the fish to gather at one corner for the spot-feeding method.

Advantages of Broadcast Feeding

1. Ease of Implementation

Practicing Broadcast feeding is straightforward and requires minimal effort to implement. This makes it suitable for larger ponds or operations with high stocking densities.

2. Time Efficiency

Since feed is spread uniformly across the entire pond surface, broadcast feeding saves time compared to the labor-intensive process of spot feeding.

3. Suitable for All Fish

Broadcast feeding caters to the natural feeding behaviors of fish, allowing all fish within the pond to access the feed, regardless of their location, size, and strength.

Disadvantages of Broadcast Feeding

1. Feed Wastage

One of the primary drawbacks of broadcast feeding is the potential for increased feed wastage, as some feed may not be consumed by the intended fish and may instead be lost to the environment.

2. Unequal Distribution

In larger ponds, ensuring uniform feed distribution across the entire surface can be challenging, leading to uneven feeding and potential disparities in fish growth.

3. Water Quality Concerns

The excess feed not consumed by fish may accumulate at the pond bottom, contributing to nutrient buildup and degraded water quality if not properly managed.

Responsive Feeding

The Responsive Feeding method may combine both spot feeding and broadcast feeding. It involves throwing fish feed into the fish pond and observing how the fish is responding, acting, and behaving towards the feed.

It does not matter whether you are using the spot feeding method or broadcast feeding method, what matters is observing how the fish respond to the feed.

Advantages of Responsive Feeding

1. Control Feeding Quantity

The responsive feeding method enables you to determine how much quantity of feed your fish want. This helps prevent over-feeding or under-feeding.

2. Avoid Fish Wastage

This Fish feeding method helps prevent over-feeding which will result in feed wastage. Because you observe how the fish respond to the feed, when they are satisfied, you can observe and stop giving them more feed.

3. Quality Water Management

Since you can control over-feeding, it means the water quality will not be jeopardized due to feed waste that may accumulate under the fish pond.

4. Detect When Something Is Wrong With The Fish

Healthy fish is characterized by a high appetite. So Responsive Feeding will tell when the fish have a high appetite and when they do not. When you observe that they are not active toward the food, it means there is something wrong with them. Therefore you can find treatment before is out of hand.

Disadvantages of the Responsive Feeding Method

1. Time Consumption

The Responsive Feeding Method consumes time since you have to stand and observe how the fish is responding to the feed while giving more. Unless just throwing some quantity and moving away, in the responsive method you need to wait to observe.

If you don’t have patience, you may choose just throw a certain quantity which many times comes with consequences.

2. Difficult Keeping Track

The Responsive Feeding Method doesn’t give the same quantity of feed every day. Each day has a unique quantity the fish consume depending on their appetite that day. Because of that, if no proper record keeping, it will be difficult to tell how much quantity they take for a day for a long time. Unless you record the quantity they consume every day to be able to keep track.

3. Unequal Distribution of Feed

When you observe while feeding, often the strong and active ones can get the feed first before the weak or small ones. Therefore, when they slow down and you think they are satisfied, sometimes that is when the weak ones can access the feed. So once you stop at that point, the weak ones will not always be able to eat and therefore not grow exponentially.

Making the Right Choice

As farmers navigate the feeding methods in their fish farming, the decision between spot feeding, broadcast feeding, and responsive feeding emerges as a pivotal juncture.

Pond size, stocking density, and management preferences all play a role in shaping this decision. It’s a delicate balance between precision and simplicity, where the right choice hinges upon a nuanced understanding of one’s unique circumstances.

Before choosing any feeding method, weigh all of them to determine the one that fits your farm and preference best.

The feeding methods selection is sometimes also influenced by the type of feed selected.

Is better to seek experts advice on the best method to feed your fish. Check out the Best Aquaculture Experts for your aquaculture journey.

Conclusion

In the vast expanse of fish farming, the choice between spot feeding, broadcast feeding, responsive feeding, or any feeding method serves as a compass guiding farmers toward efficiency and productivity.

Each method offers distinct advantages and disadvantages, each suited to different needs and circumstances.

By delving into the intricacies of these feeding techniques, farmers can chart a course toward optimized feeding practices and ensure the flourishing of their aquatic charges.

Recommendation

I recommend that you get an Automatic Feeder which is best, time, and energy saving.

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Poultry Farming

Gangrenous Dermatitis in Poultry

August 31, 2024 2 Comments

Gangrenous dermatitis (GD) is a serious bacterial disease affecting poultry. It’s often within 24 hours. It sometimes seems to appear almost out of nowhere because suddenly you will have healthy birds and dead birds, but not many birds in between. While GD has been reported in commercial layers, turkeys, and broiler breeders, it usually occurs in fast-growing broilers between 4 and 8 weeks of age.

Other names;

Necrotic dermatitis
Avian malignant edema
Gangrenous cellulitis
Blue wing
Red leg
Wing rot

Causes Gangrenous Dermatitis

A wound to the skin is usually the initial culprit that sets a bird up for GD; followed by a secondary bacterial infection with Clostridium prefringens type A, Clostridium septicum, or Staphylococcus aureus (either alone or in combination).

Bacteria involved in the occurrence of GD are usually not able to penetrate intact skin. However, the infectious agent can be ingested if live birds peck at dead birds that have died with the disease or if the litter and feces are contaminated with large numbers of disease-causing bacteria. Milder forms of GD are usually associated with Staphylococcus aureus. When Clostridium is the cause, GD cases are generally much more severe, with higher mortality occurring much more rapidly.

For GD to occur and affect large numbers of birds, generally three things are required:

Some type of injury to the skin,
The disease organism (Clostridium or other species) present in sufficient numbers to cause disease, and
Some type of immune suppression

READ ALSO: Sudden Death Syndrome in Broiler

Treatment and Control of Gangrenous Dermatitis in Poultry

1. Cleaning and disinfection of the pen: Total clean out and disinfection of affected pen will decreased or eliminate gangrenous dermatitis infection on farm, salting of floor has also help in recent time

2. Appropriate litter management

3. Vaccination against immunosuppressive viral disease: immunosuppressive disease such as infectious bursal disease, inclusion body hepatitis, reovirus, reticuloendotheliosis, Marek’s disease, and chick infectious anemia may set a flock up for GD. In addition, mycotoxins (particularly aflatoxin) in the feed can cause immune suppression.

4. Prevention of Trauma: Birds sunjected to stressful situations such as overcrowding, wet litter, or heat stress. Other stressors such as environmental extremes, coccidiosis, nutritional deficiencies, and management issues may also suppress the immune system and lead to GD.

5. Eliminate anything that can cause injury to birds in the pen

6. dispose dead birds immediately.

Conclusion

Prevention should be high on every farmer’s to-do list because managing an outbreak is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive. Because Clostridium and other disease organisms that cause GD are everywhere in the environment, it is unlikely they can be totally eliminated. Therefore, the goal should be to keep their numbers as low as possible. By doing so, fewer birds will be exposed to disease-causing pathogens, and the ones that are exposed will not be exposed to overwhelming numbers of pathogens, decreasing their chances of becoming infected.

Farm hygiene, sound management practices, and ideal litter and house environment conditions is important to lessen the threat of gangrenous dermatitis.

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Poultry Farming

Floor Space Requirements For Broilers & Layers

August 31, 2024 No Comments

In livestock farming, floor space is very important. Spacing have a tremendous effect on the growth and general welfare of livestock. Poor performance cannot be avoided in an overcrowded pen. For laying birds (layers), the growth, laying and health performance would be greatly affected.

So a farmer or keeper needs to put the space requirements into serious consideration when planning the design and size of the pen where your flock will be kept.

The importance of spacing might not be well understood if the disadvantaged of over stocking is not well explained.

Problems of Overstocking or Overcrowding

Other problems associated with inadequate floor space for broilers includes;

Unequal feeding and deprivation of the smaller or weak chickens
Stunted or poor growth
Poor health
Poor feed conversion
Poor laying or egg production efficiency
Mortality due to heat stress
Increased cases of bullying and cannibalism
Rapid disease spread
Incessant wetness of the litter and ammonia build-up
Stuffy or smelly pen

Now, it is important to list the importance, benefits or advantages of knowing the floor spacing of chickens.

Advantages of Knowing Floor Spacing

It helps in determining the holding capacity of a particular rearing pen and avoiding overstocking or understocking
It helps to prevent space-related losses
It enhances the welfare and performance of the flock
It eases planning such as pen design plan and feeding plan

Having listed the salient points above, I will like to do mathematics and the answer to the popular question: what is the floor space requirement for broilers?

Floor Space Requirements for Broiler Chickens

The ideal floor space requirement per broiler chicken is 1-2 sqft (0.09-0.18 sqm), 1.5 sqft (0.14 sqm) on average. However, going as high as 2.5 sqft/bird (0.23 sqm/bird) is not bad, especially during the very hot seasons. Don’t forget this value is for adult birds (around 8 weeks), therefore, if you are looking at raising younger broiler chickens like 0-4 weeks old, then you can go for a lesser floor space such as 0.75 sqft/bird.

Floor Space Requirements for Layers

The ideal floor space requirement per broiler chicken is 1.7-1.9 sqft or 0.16-0.18 sqm. This is the recommended floor space for a layer chicken raised on deep-litter and above 18 weeks old.

You can also calculate the stocking density or floor space based on the live body weight of the broiler chickens.

Floor space for 1 broiler at 2.3 kg is 0.97 sqft (0.09 sqm). Therefore, for 100 broilers it is 0.97 X 100 = 97 sqft. It’s as simple as ABC.

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Poultry Farming

Factors that contribute to the overall performance in poultry.

August 27, 2024 No Comments

1. Chick source: Don’t compromise on good chicks

2. Feed: let your priority be on quality feed most especially on the first two weeks.

3. Heat during brooding: the average heat needed for brooding is 35°c, the temperature should be adjusted according to birds reaction.

4. Water: don’t give your birds the water you cannot drink.

5. Vaccination and medication: vaccine is for prevention of disease, drugs is for curing disease.

READ ALSO: Vaccine Failure in Poultry

6. Bedding/litters management: protect your litters from getting wet, change it when it’s dirty.

7. Biosecurity: your pen is not a restaurant, don’t allow everybody to enter.

8.Record keeping: 80% of small scale farmers don’t keep record, this made them to sell below the production cost.

The important data that is important in your record book are

a. Weight of birds at day old, and least every two weeks.

b. Feed intake

c. Medication and vaccination given

d. Mortality

Water taken for each day is also important, it helps in know how to dilute your drugs and vaccine

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Poultry Farming

Water Management in Poultry Production

August 20, 2024 1 Comment

Water management is a crucial part of broiler health & profitable poultry production.

Generally, poultry consumes more water (1.5 to 2 times) than feed. As a result, water is the most critical nutrient for poultry.

And also the expenses we made on drugs can be greatly reduced if we give more attention the following tips on water management.

1. Always give them clean water and make sure you change their water in the afternoon (don’t serve your birds the water you cannot drink)

2. Don’t allow vaccinated water to stay more than 0ne hour with them.

3. Don’t allow medicated water(water mixed with antibiotics or multivitamin) to stay more than six hours with them, medicated water start producing odour after long hours.

Only put medication in the water they will finish within six hours.

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4. Make sure you serve water before serving feed in case your drinker system is not automated.

5. Wash your tank and your water pipes occasionally to prevent bacteria buildup in your water tank and pipes.

6. Don’t use chlorinated water to dillute their vaccine, it will damage the vaccine.

7. Adding milk the water you intend to dilute your vaccine with will helps to stabilize the water and neutralize the Chlorine/others foreign materials that might have prevent the effectiveness of the vaccine

8. Do well to damage your left over vaccine by mixing chlorine with it before disposing it.

READ ALSO: Vaccine Failure in Poultry

9. Do occasional bacteria load test on your water at a reputable lab to be sure you are not giving your bird contaminated water

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Poultry Farming

Perfect Temperature for Brooding Chicks

August 19, 2024 No Comments

One of the many important factors that determine the success of brooding day old chicks is heat.

It is advisable for farmers to buy a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the brooding house.

The perfect temperature for brooding day old chicks is between 35°c and 37°c.

Temperature higher or lower than this can cause mortality and high temperature can affect calcium absorption in chicks.

However, farmers without thermometer can determine the heat effect on the birds by how distributed they are in the brooding pen.

Below are different diagram that perfectly illustrate the behavior of chicks in response to the temperature of the pen.

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Poultry Farming

Guides to Successfully Chicks Brooding

August 11, 2024 1 Comment

If a farmer can get the first two weeks of raising birds right, then farming business will be enjoyable.

Brooding broiler chicks involves providing the optimal environment and care to ensure their health and growth from day-old to four weeks. Here’s a detailed guide on the essentials of brooding:

1. Preparation of the Brooder House

• Cleaning and Dïsinfëçtion: Thoroughly clean and disinfect the brooder house a week before the chicks arrive. Remove any old litter, wash down the surfaces with a pressure washer, and apply a disïnfëctânt effective against common poultry disëáses like Vïrkøn S or a blëâch sølütion. Allow the house to dry completely before adding new litter.

• Litter Preparation: Spread a 2-3 inch layer of absorbent litter material (such as wood shavings, rice hulls, chopped straw, or newspaper) on the floor. The litter should be dry, free from mold, and dust-free to provide a comfortable bedding for the chicks and absorb moisture.

• Heating Source: Install heating equipment like infrared heat lamps, gas brooders, or electric heat plates. Position the heat source to provide an even distribution of warmth. Maintain a temperature of 32-35°C (90-95°F) at chick level for the first week. Use a thermometer to check the temperature in multiple locations within the brooder.

Make sure you hear up your brooding pen at least one hour before the chicks arrival.

2. Setting Up the Brooder

• Temperature Regulation: Monitor the temperature closely. Place thermometers at chick level in different parts of the brooder. Reduce the temperature by 2-3°C each week until it reaches 21°C (70°F) by the end of the fourth week. Ensure the chicks have a warm area and cooler areas to move to if they get too hot.

• Brooder Guard: Set up a circular brooder guard (18-24 inches high) to prevent chicks from straying too far from the heat source. This also helps prevent crowding and sufføcátion. The guard should have a diameter of about 5-6 feet for 50 chicks. As the chicks grow, expand the brøøder guard to give them more space.

3. Receiving the Chicks

• Immediate Placement: Upon arrival, quickly and gently place the chicks under the heat source. Ensure they are spread out evenly to avoid crowding. Allow them to settle in for at least an hour before introducing food and water. During this time, monitor their behavior to ensure they are comfortable.

• Water Provision: Provide clean, fresh water immediately. Use shallow drinkers to prevent drowning. Add electrølytës and vitämïns to the water, such as a commercial electrølytë solution, to combat stress from transportation. Ensure the water is at room temperature to encourage drinking.

• Feeding: Start with a high-quality chick starter feed that contains 20-22% protein. Spread some feed on paper sheets or chick paper to encourage pecking and eating. Use shallow feeders to make it easy for the chicks to access the feed. Gradually introduce them to the regular feeders over a few days.

4. Daily Care and Monitoring

• Check Temperature: Observe chick behavior to adjust temperature. Chicks huddling under the heat source indicate they are cold, while those far from it indicate they are too hot. Chicks evenly spread out and actively moving around show the temperature is just right.

• Water and Feed Management: Clean and refill waterers and feeders daily. Ensure feed is always available but prevent wastage by not overfilling the feeders. Check for wet litter around waterers and clean immediately to prevent mold and báctérial growth.

• Health Checks: Look for sigñs of illness like léthárgy, ruffled feathers, or pästy vënts (a condition where droppings stick to the chick’s vent area). Isolate and tréät any sïck chicks promptly. Consult a véterinärian if necessary for a proper diágnøsis and tréâtmént plan.

• Ventilation: Ensure adequate ventilation without creating drafts. Proper airflow helps maintain air quality and prevents rëspirátory issüēs. Use fans or open windows, but make sure there are no direct drafts on the chicks.

READ ALSO: Sudden Death Syndrome in Broiler

5. Lighting

• First Week: Provide 24-hour light to encourage eating and drinking. Use bright, white light to mimic daylight. Position the lights evenly to avoid dark spots in the brooder.

• Gradual Reduction: Gradually reduce light hours to 18-20 hours by the end of the fourth week. Dimming the lights slightly at night can help establish a natural day-night cycle.

Poultry Farming

Vaccine Effectiveness: Separating Fact from Fiction

August 10, 2024 No Comments

Vaccines work by introducing a small, harmless piece of a disease-causing agent (antigen) to the body, which triggers the immune system to produce antibodies and immune cells that can recognize and fight the disease.

Here are various possible outcomes of vaccinating birds:

Positive Outcomes:

– Immunity to specific diseases

– Reduced disease transmission

– Improved bird health and well-being

– Increased productivity and egg production

– Enhanced immune system response

– Reduced antibiotic use

– Protection against zoonotic diseases

READ ALSO: Vaccine Failure in Poultry

Negative Outcomes:

– Adverse reactions (allergic reactions)

– Vaccine failure or ineffectiveness (most times due to temperature fluctuations during storage, which is common in areas with poor power supply/lack of back-up power supply).

– Stress and discomfort during vaccination

– Vaccine contamination or improper handling

– Vaccine-induced immunosuppression

– Interaction with other health issues or medications

– Cost and logistical challenges

Neutral Outcomes:

– No noticeable effect on bird health or productivity

– No change in disease susceptibility or transmission

– No adverse reactions or interactions

Rare Outcomes:

– Vaccine-associated diseases (e.g., Marek’s disease)

– Autoimmune disorders

– Tumors or cacance

It’s crucial to consult with a veterinarian to determine the best vaccination program for your specific flock and monitor for any outcomes.

READ ALSO: Nutritional Deficiency in Poultry

What are vaccines made from:

– Weakened or killed forms of the disease-causing agent

– Genetic material (DNA or RNA)

– Subunits of the disease-causing agent, such as proteins or sugars

– Inactivated toxins

By stimulating the immune system, vaccines help protect against infectious diseases, reducing the risk of illness, complications, and transmission.

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Ruminates

Grain Overload or Acidosis in Ruminant Animals

August 8, 2024 No Comments

Grain overload is also known as acidosis or grain poisoning, it occurs when cattle, sheep or goats eat large amounts of grain. The grain releases carbohydrate into the animal’s rumen and this rapidly ferments rather than being digested normally. Bacteria in the rumen produce lactic acid, resulting in acidosis, slowing of the gut, dehydration and often death.

Other Names

Acidosis
Carbohydrate Engorgement
Carbohydrate Overload
Grain Overload
Lactic Acidosi

What causes grain overload?
Wheat and barley are the most common causes of grain overload, but it occasionally occurs with oats and lupins. Crushing or cracking of grain by a hammermill increases the likelihood of grain overload, because these processes result in quicker release of carbohydrates.

Cases are often seen when:

stock are suddenly grain fed without being gradually introduced to the grain or pellets
there is a sudden change in feeding regimen or in the grains being fed
stock graze newly harvested paddocks (where there may be spilled grain or unharvested areas)
stock get unplanned access to grain or pellets, such as around silos.
Which classes of stock are affected?
Cattle sheep and goats of any age can be affected if they eat more grain than they can digest normally

Signs of grain overload:

Depressed appearance
Lying down
Diarrhoea
Dehydration and thirst
Bloat (of the left side of the abdomen)
Staggery or tender gait and ‘sawhorse’ stance
deaths.

Treatment
Consult a veterinarian for a treatment plan, as treatment will vary according to the severity of the disease. Treatments include

intravenous fluids

Drenching with bicarbonate solution or milk of magnesia

Intraruminal antibiotic injections

Thiamine or steroid injections

Surgery for very valuable animals.

Following grain overload, the rumen lining takes up to six weeks to repair, so recovering animals will show poor growth rates during this time.

Some animals may develop secondary infections, including abscesses in the liver and other organs. These animals tend to become long-term poor doers and may need to be culled.

Welfare
Animals that appear very depressed after getting sudden access to bulk grain, and which are not immediately treated, will usually die. It is advisable to discuss individual animals affected like this with your private veterinarian.

Prevention

Grain overload can be prevented by gradually introducing animals to grain or pellets. The amount of grain and the time taken to adapt sheep or cattle to grain depends on:

Availability of hay and other feed
Time of year
Type of grain being fed
aims of feeding (such as for weaners for sale or for lactating ewes).
Specific antibiotic products that selectively reduce the numbers of acid-producing bacteria in the gut are available on prescription from veterinarians. These make it safe to introduce grain more rapidly without a long conditioning process.

Some useful guidelines for preventing grain overload in stock are:

Use oats and lupins in preference to, or before transitioning to, wheat or barley.
During the introduction phase, feed grain daily.
Introduce oats to sheep by starting with 50 grams on the first day, followed by increases of 50g per head per day until the required ration is reached.
Ensure sheep always have access to roughage as well as fed grain.
Introduce oats to cattle by starting with 500g per head per day, followed by increases of 500g per head every fourth day until the required ration is reached.
When feeding grain to cattle for production ensure a good quality source of hay or silage is always available and that it makes up at least 20% of the ration (unless feeding a complete ration where the roughage and grain are mixed).
To transition to wheat or barley from oats, increase the wheat or barley portion by 25% of the oat ration every five days over 16 days. For example, if the current oat ration is 500g, start by adding 125g of wheat or barley to every 375g of oats.
Monitor your herd or flock for signs of scouring, depression, lethargy and lameness, which will indicate that the amount of grain being fed is being increased too fast.
Check pulpy kidney vaccinations are up to date and vaccinate if necessary before grain feeding.

Diseases with signs that may resemble grain poisoning:

Polioencephalomalacia
Salmonellosis
Pulpy kidney (enterotoxaemia)
Pregnancy toxaemia
Hypocalcaemia
Lupinosis

If you are in doubt about the signs your stock are displaying or you see unusual disease signs or multiple deaths in your stock, call your veterinarian.

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Poultry Farming

Antibiotic Resistance in Poultry (Cause and Prevention)

August 6, 2024 No Comments

Antibiotic resistance is when bacteria change to resist antibiotics that used to effectively treat them. This makes certain bacterial infections difficult to treat.

Antibiotic resistance is a type of antimicrobial resistance. Fungi, parasites and viruses can also develop drug resistance.

The body of the birds doesn’t develop antibiotic resistance — bacteria do. When antibiotic resistance happens, fewer antibiotics are effective against a particular bacterium. Other antibiotics often help, but it’s important to have as many treatment options available as possible. It’s also important to begin effective treatment as quickly as possible for serious infection on your farm. If it takes longer for a vet to find a medication that will treat an antibiotic-resistant infection, the outcome can be more serious.

Antibiotic resistance is dangerous because it reduces treatment options for birds who are sick. It may also delay effective treatment. As a result, farmers may face:

Increased risk of severe, extended illness or death of birds
Severe medication side effects.
Increased medical costs.
Spread of disease on farm(farmers are expected to have sick bay on the farm, so sick birds can be separated from the healthy one)
What causes antibiotic resistance?
Bacteria naturally become resistant to medications over time. But certain factors can speed up the process, including:

1.Overuse of antibiotics: Giving your birds antibiotics when they don’t need them contributes to antibiotic resistance. Farmers should be careful when using antibiotics for prevention measures.

2. Misuse of antibiotics: Bacteria take advantage of any opportunity to multiply. If you refuse to use appropriate dosage of antibiotic for your sick birds, or you stop treatment too soon, bacteria start reproducing. As they multiply, they can change (mutate). Mutated bacteria become increasingly resistant to medicine. Antibiotics can kill the bacteria that haven’t mutated to resist treatment, but they leave the resistant bacteria behind.

Spontaneous resistance. Sometimes, the genetic makeup (DNA) of a bacterium changes or mutates on its own. The antibiotic doesn’t recognize this newly changed bacterium and can’t target it the way it should. Or , the change helps the bacteria fight off the medicine’s effects.

When birds get sick, one of the first things you might wonder is what kind of medicine can you give to make them feel better. Thankfully, antibiotics are still powerful tools in the fight against many bacterial infections. They’ll improve their symptoms and lower the risk of serious complications. But as time goes on, more bacteria are developing resistance to medicines that have worked for years. This situation can be scary, but learning more about antibiotic resistance can help you on how to use antibiotics properly. Talk to your vet about ways to make your birds stay healthy.

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Farmers Entrance

Feeding Methods In Fish Farming

Gangrenous Dermatitis in Poultry

Other names;

Causes Gangrenous Dermatitis

Treatment and Control of Gangrenous Dermatitis in Poultry

Click HERE to join our WhatsApp group

Floor Space Requirements For Broilers & Layers

Factors that contribute to the overall performance in poultry.

Water Management in Poultry Production

Perfect Temperature for Brooding Chicks

Guides to Successfully Chicks Brooding

Vaccine Effectiveness: Separating Fact from Fiction

Grain Overload or Acidosis in Ruminant Animals

Antibiotic Resistance in Poultry (Cause and Prevention)

Effect of Mosquito on Chicken

Important Things to Check When Buying Point of Lay Chickens

Summary: Key Takeaways for Successful Livestock and Poultry Farming

Sustainable Feeding Practices for a Greener Future

Effect of Mosquito on Chicken

Important Things to Check When Buying Point of Lay Chickens