Why are chicken diseases so common in spring, and what are the precautions and preventive measures?
With the arrival of spring, temperatures rise, and bacteria and viruses begin to grow and reproduce, so diseases are also prone to occur frequently in spring. For farmers, doing a good job of prevention early is very necessary, so what are the precautions and preventive measures for raising chickens?
Precautions:
1. Maintain a suitable temperature. In early spring, the temperature difference between day and night is large, so special attention should be paid to nighttime temperature management. The chicken coop should be well sealed, and the indoor temperature should be controlled at 16°C~26°C. When using a coal stove to raise the temperature, care should be taken to prevent chickens from coal gas poisoning.
2. Correctly handle the relationship between heat preservation and ventilation. If heat preservation in the chicken coop is emphasized while ventilation and air exchange are ignored, it is very easy to cause the air inside the coop to become foul and for large numbers of pathogens to breed. If chickens inhale harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and ammonia for a long time and grow in an environment where pathogens breed, colibacillosis, chronic respiratory disease, and other diseases tend to occur at high rates.
3. Increase the nutritional level of the feed. The climate in this season is changeable, and the disease resistance of chickens is relatively weak, so increasing the nutritional level of the feed is crucial. The protein content in chick feed should be increased by 3%~5%, the energy in grower feed should be appropriately increased, and the feeding amount should also be appropriately increased to resist the cold.
4. Supplement lighting. In early spring, the nights are long and the days are short, and insufficient light can cause a decline in the laying rate of laying hens. To overcome this natural deficiency, artificial supplementary lighting can be used to make up for it. Under normal circumstances, the total daily lighting time should not be less than 14 hours, nor should it exceed 17 hours. The intensity of supplementary artificial lighting should preferably be 2~4 watts of light per square meter of chicken coop area.
5. Reduce stress. Chickens are timid and easily frightened, and they are very sensitive to changes in the external environment. Therefore, feeding, adding water, collecting eggs, disinfecting, cleaning, and removing manure should all be done at certain times and in a certain order. Movements during work should be gentle and slow, and strangers and other animals must be strictly prohibited from entering the chicken coop. If loud noises occur outside, such as firecrackers during festivals, harsh gongs and drums, or the howling of the north wind, the keeper should enter the coop in time to create a safe atmosphere for the chickens of “the owner is right here”. An appropriate amount of multivitamins or other anti-stress drugs can also be added to the chicken feed or drinking water to prevent and reduce losses caused by stress reactions.
6. Do a good job of hygiene. The environmental hygiene inside and outside the chicken coop should be well managed, and regular disinfection should be carried out.
Preventive measures:
1. Prevent diseases
Various chicken diseases can occur in every season, but spring is the season when microorganisms reproduce in large numbers, and insects such as mosquitoes and flies also begin to breed. This is the season when bacterial diseases and parasitic diseases occur at high rates. In addition, the climatic characteristics of spring, such as dry weather, strong wind and sand, and large temperature differences between day and night, further promote the occurrence of various respiratory diseases. Therefore, when raising chickens in spring, attention should be paid to increasing the prevention of respiratory, intestinal, and parasitic diseases.
2. Prevent temperature and humidity problems
Suitable temperature and humidity are key to the growth of the chicken flock. The environmental temperature inside the chicken coop is generally preferably 18-22°C. In spring, the daytime temperature is relatively high and the nighttime temperature is relatively low, but during the breeding process the day-night temperature difference should generally be controlled at 5°C, and the humidity should generally be around 50%-70%. Humidity higher or lower than the suitable level is not conducive to chicken growth. Therefore, temperature and humidity control measures should be well implemented.
3. Prevent ventilation problems
The core of chicken coop ventilation management is to meet the respiratory volume of the chicken flock, adjust the temperature and humidity of the coop, and remove the residual amount of harmful gases in the coop. In spring, chicken coop ventilation should at least meet the minimum respiratory volume of the flock, that is, meet 0.4 cubic meters per hour per kilogram of body weight per chicken; if conditions permit, it is best to achieve the suitable ventilation volume, that is, 1.2 cubic meters per hour per kilogram of body weight per chicken, to maintain good air quality in the chicken coop.
4. Prevent nutritional problems
When environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, ventilation, and light intensity are most suitable, it is the most suitable period for flock production, and all functions grow at high speed. At this time, the nutritional level of the daily ration should be appropriately increased to meet the nutritional needs of the chickens and promote their suitable growth.