Broiler Chickens

Luka, stunting in broiler chickens can be due to several things infectious and none infectious.Consider your feed specs first, managemental issues such as availability in feed as well as diseases such as reovirus amongst other things. These can be corrected as diagnosed. What is the clinical picture in the flock, uniformity, mortality and average weight as well as age of birds. Correction could be by replacing the feed, ensurring proper levels of feeders to allow access as well as use of anti-viral agents in case of reovirus. Also consider herbal products such as artichoke (Bedgen 40) to enhance digestion and nutrient utilisation.

Good article about Stunted growth in Broiler Chickens. Stunted growth has multiple causal factors, feed, chilling, bacterial, viral, protozoal like coccidiosi , genetics however each factor has to considered according to its own merit and demerit to establish the diagnosis.

Dear Forum Members,

It is my personal experience that a good management helps to control various unwanted effects that ultimately effects the uniformity of growing flocks of broiler & layer chickens,for this purpose I decided to conduct some simple but risky experiments both in broilers & eggs producing hens. I selected to raise a flock of 500 broiler birds, I travelled all along with my day old chicken 500 in number from a local hatchery, it was October 19th, 2011, in my air conditioned car ,very soon as I approached to my farm I prepared the vaccine of nd+ib (1000) doses & innoculated both in eye & nose of the day old chick in a temperature of around 80f. It took 2 hours as I was not freeing the chicken directly in the brooding space set/prepared already for them. I was freeing each chicken after vaccination from the chick box in to the brooding section. Now the water containg glucose 5gms/litre + ors 1gm/litre was available along with the feed in feed pans,this water was for 6 hours after that I used amoxicilline 15%+colistine in the ratio of 1gm/1litre of drinking water & it was for 12 hours. The next water was again of glucose & ors this time 12 hours at night the temperature was mantained on 90 f. This course was continued for 2 consecutive days. At the 7th day, gumboro d78 was innoculated orally in the manner that the vaccine was prepared & each chick drinked 2 drops of the prepared vaccine. I stopped amoxicilline course just a day before vaccination against gumboro & started it again the 2nd day of d78. Chicken was going good until the day 14th approaced this day average weight was 400gms,this time same technique of gumboro vaccine innoculation was adopted despite of mixing the whole vaccine in wated again the vaccine was prepared in a dilutor & then administered. I had not stopped the amoxicilline course even for a single day except the day of vaccination. The interesting thing which i had done was the use of coccidiostat @ 30gms/50 kg feed was started on day 15th,along with amoxicilline course,there was a little development of coryza but i doubled the dose of the antibiotic along with paracetamol an antipyretic agent,the problem was also solved by in creasing the temperature up to 95f at night & 85f in day.

On the day 22, I administered the lasota vaccine following the same method of oral administration manually/byhand instead of giving it in water the day lasota was given I stopped once again the antibiotic course. Now the chicken is of 33 days 7 it weighs 1783gms avg. Meanwhile it has consumed 17 bags of feed each bag weighs 50 kgs.

The message I am trying to convey in this respect is that the total mortility is only 5 uptill now 21-11-2011. Vaccination plays a vital role & this study has given me a new thing that we must arrange such techniques of manual vaccination that each bird recieves accurate dose of vaccine needed,for first 7 days there was feed pans full of feed & light was given 24 hours to the chicken after 1 week the feed was scheduled twice in the morning & in evening 4 pm while lights were scheduled to switched off in 12 am night & switched on in the morning 6 am. On the day 14th there was done the grading of weak stunted or retarted chicked they were seperated & were given 24 hours feed + vitamins +coccidiostat they are now much healthy then the usual ones. I pray allah that I would be successful in my test experience as i being a veterinarian was contended because no hydroparicardium or e.coli or any other disease hit my flock yet.

What I have concluded is that we must educate farmers about the role of management & importance of vaccine in the broiler flocks.

Now my real passion the layers I hold approximately 40000 laying hens kept mostly on floors in different farms. Every thing is good as far as this amoxicilline as an antibiotic is available as a remidy against different diseases like necrotic enteritis or infectious bronchitis is concerned,major role in egg production revloves around good feed brands like olmpia feeds & adequate knowledge of farm management etc. I have kept 5 egg laying hens in my house as an experiment 2 of them are w98 & rest belongs to lsl classic they are with me since april 2011 & are of 30 months of age approx I have never vaccinated them against any disease normal dewormer is given in case of any ascara of tapeworm seen no antibiotics no vitamins just feed & fresh water is given to them now the question arises why they not been hunted by any lethal disease so far the answer in my view is that they live on soild cemented floor where I washed the floor daily hence refreshing the atmosphere daily so the conclusion is this that if we arrange some techniques that discourage the use of litter or wooden beddings.

I hope that this article will be considered & will be answered by various forum members. Looking forward for further suggestions/ discussions.

Regards,

Dr.Muhammad Ali Khan Durrani.
Sargodha.
+923014807709.

Dear Friends,
The Main cause of the Stunted growth were the malabsorption,the cause may be different etiology either viral , bacterial ,fungal (Mycotoxin).
The main potential etiology were Mycotoxins , enterovirus and reovirus.
The mycotoxin concern mainly feed borne and concentration involved in the incidence of the stunted.
Prevention:
I thing there is no effective treatment for severely affected birds , but sanitation and disinfection will reduce the burden.
Reovirus vaccine can prevent the stunting.
Feeds should be analysed for dietary toxins.
In Winter / Rainy season we have to take care of the MAIZE AND OTHER CEREALS AS WELL AS PROTEIN RAW MATERIALS Procurement.
What will happened during the New maize season also the moisture Level go beyond the 15 % IN MAIZE This ultimately prone for the mycotoxin growth and reduce the energy level in the maize so automatically the broiler growth become affected.This may be one of the cause for the Stunted growth in broilers.

It happens all due to mold contaminated feed cosumption for long time

You should specify what you mean by stunned growth. whether it is a bird that is not growing in terms of weight in relation to days or there is variation in which high percentage of runts are seen.
Many factors contribute the situation basically,brooding ,inefficient calorie protein ratio ,chicks hatched from old age eggs ,high humidity ,water hardness ,etc.
Reovirus do have impact on runting and stuntung syndrome ,malabsortion syndrome etc. mycotoxins specialy DAS and DON causes profund effect.

Quality management,feed and environment is prime imp.

Hi Nitin
At times it is seen that there are so many runts in a flock but the most common one is the one were the flock does not grow in tems of weight and according to age. As you aware in broiler rearing that means spending more on feed.
thanks.

dear luka
if you really want your broilers to perform well ,you should really concentrate on the feed with appropriate nutrients ,secondly probiotics and enzymes now days play a vital role in broiler farming.
i tell you one thing that few years back i purchased chicks from a hatchery which had a problem of "J"virus where i faced stunted growth,

thanks
nitin suryavanshi

How can be treated the stunted growth due to reovirus when the problem has occured?

Hi, everybody. There are some problems occur during 10 years ago in my country and most of them are from bad management and of new technology and various source of one day old birds , of feed of medicine and vaccine.
I want to ask what can we do for the future?



Dr,Lokman