What to Do When Chickens Get Fowl Pox? Treatment Methods During Chicken Raising

Chicken raising is one of the projects that many farmers engage in. During the process of raising chickens, the most feared thing is the invasion of diseases, which often leads to significant losses in farming. Among these, fowl pox in chickens is a very common viral infectious disease, often occurring in late autumn. So what should be done when pox appears during chicken raising?

I. Symptoms of Fowl Pox in Chickens

Fowl pox (Avian Pox) is an acute, contagious disease of chickens. The disease is characterized by pox lesions on the featherless or sparsely feathered skin of chickens, or the formation of fibrinous necrotic pseudomembranes on the mucous membranes of the oral cavity and throat. It easily causes epidemics in collective or large-scale chicken farms, and can cause slow weight gain and emaciation; when laying hens are infected, egg production temporarily decreases. If complicated by other infectious diseases, parasitic diseases, poor sanitation conditions, or malnutrition, it can cause relatively high mortality, and is even more likely to cause serious losses to young chickens.

The incubation period of fowl pox is about 4-10 days. According to symptoms and the site of lesions, it can be divided into two types: the skin type and the diphtheritic type. Generally, the skin type is more common in autumn, while the diphtheritic type is more common in winter. In addition, there are also mixed cases.

Skin-type fowl pox lesions occur in featherless and sparsely feathered areas, such as the comb, wattles, face, nostrils, and around the eyes, forming wart-like pox lesions.

Sick chickens initially develop small grayish-white nodules on the skin. The nodules rapidly enlarge and turn yellow, merging with adjacent nodules to form dry, rough, brownish scabs that protrude from the skin surface. If the scab is peeled off, a bleeding lesion is exposed on the skin. The number of scabs varies; when numerous, they can cover the entire featherless part of the chicken's head.

II. Prevention and Treatment Methods for Fowl Pox

The most reliable method for preventing fowl pox is vaccination. The currently used fowl pox vaccine is safe and effective, suitable for young chicks and chickens of different ages. At the time of use, dilute the vaccine at 1.5-2 times the amount. (Add 3-5 ml of normal saline per 1000 doses).

Use a vaccination needle to dip the vaccine and inject it subcutaneously on the inner side of the chicken's wing. (There is a thinnest triangular area on the chicken's wing, with only a thin layer of skin; inject the fowl pox vaccine there.) Each chicken is injected once. For broilers, when young chicks are vaccinated against Newcastle disease, the fowl pox vaccine can be administered at the same time.

Feed troughs and water troughs should be cleaned and scrubbed regularly, and feed bags should be dedicated to specific uses; regular disinfection should be carried out to remove pathogenic microorganisms from the surface of equipment and prevent diseases from entering the flock. Chicken raisers themselves should also maintain good hygiene and disinfection. Sick chickens should be isolated promptly, or even culled, and the site and equipment should be thoroughly disinfected.

Reasonably use additives such as vitamins. At different stages, prepare feed rationally, and do not add or reduce vitamins and other additives arbitrarily. If vitamin supplementation is neglected for a long time, chickens will experience sporadic deaths during the growth and development stage.