3 Key Measures You Must Know for Duck Disease Prevention and Control

I. Do a good job of environmental disinfection.

1. Ensure the disinfection effect.

Currently, the drugs used for environmental disinfection on farms include: aldehydes (formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde), alkalis (such as caustic soda, quicklime), halogens (chlorine preparations such as bleaching powder, Xiaoduwang, Mieduwei, etc.; iodine preparations such as iodine trioxide), peroxides (such as peracetic acid), and quaternary ammonium salts (such as Baidusha). Before disinfection, physical cleaning and washing must first be done to prevent the presence of organic matter (such as feces, urine, pus and blood, body fluids, etc.), and then the liquid disinfectant should be sprayed for disinfection.

Disinfectants that show no difference before and after disinfection and remain ineffective even after increasing their concentration should be eliminated. After an effective disinfection concentration has been determined by testing, the cost of the disinfectant should also be considered. Through comparison and calculation, several disinfectants suitable for the farm should ultimately be obtained for rotation. In this way, the disinfection effect is achieved, the disinfection cost is reduced, and the duration of use of a single disinfectant on the farm is extended.

2. Follow the disinfection order.

When disinfecting a duck farm, follow the order of first the clean road (the road used for transporting feed, etc.), then the dirty road (the road used by manure cleaning vehicles); first the backup duck farm area, then the laying duck farm area; first breeding ducks, then commercial ducks. Disinfection buckets inside duck houses must never be borrowed or used interchangeably.

3. Pay attention to the number of disinfections.

Under normal circumstances, whole-farm and duck-included disinfection should be carried out no less than 2 times per week; during disease outbreaks, insist on duck-included disinfection every day.

II. Do a good job of routine immunization.

In order to prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases, farms must formulate reasonable immunization programs to protect the health of duck flocks. A duck flock in a region may be affected by more than one infectious disease, and the vaccines (bacterins) that can be used to prevent these infectious diseases differ in nature, and the period during which the antibodies produced in the duck body can sufficiently resist invasion by pathogenic microorganisms (immunity period) also differs. Therefore, when a given duck flock uses multiple vaccines (bacterins) to prevent different diseases, the number and timing of vaccinations also need to be formulated according to the immune characteristics of each vaccine (bacterin), which forms the immunization program used in practice. A reasonable immunization program can effectively prevent the occurrence of diseases and minimize the stress response caused to the duck flock by vaccine immunization. Therefore, immunization of breeding ducks should avoid the peak laying period, and immunization of ducklings should take into account the presence of maternal antibodies. The preventive injections given to duck flocks should not only reduce the waste of manpower and material resources, but also improve immunization quality; the key lies in the immunization effect. Duck farms can introduce vaccines for immunization in a timely and appropriate manner according to the disease occurrence situation in the local area and on the farm. For example, in high-incidence areas of duck hepatitis or areas threatened by hepatitis, immunization against duck infectious hepatitis must be carried out.

Vaccine immunization itself is a kind of stress for the duck flock. In order to reduce this stress, multivitamin electrolytes can be added to the feed or drinking water. In different seasons, necessary details should be paid attention to during vaccination. When using oil-emulsion inactivated vaccines, the vaccine should first be restored to room temperature; otherwise, the vaccine injected subcutaneously will form a vaccine mass that is not easily absorbed. In summer, when the climate is hot, adequate drinking water must first be ensured during vaccination, and the immunization time should be arranged as much as possible in the cool early morning. During immunization, the vaccine should be constantly shaken evenly so that each duck can obtain an equal amount of effective antigen immunization. When inoculating with tissue attenuated vaccines, the entire immunization process should preferably be controlled within 1.5 hours to prevent the vaccine from being exposed for a long time in a duck house with excessively high temperature, which would affect the immune activity of the virus.

III. Establish a disease prevention system.

1. Control the entrance properly.

Strictly mark at the main gate: "Epidemic prevention area, visitors declined," and assign dedicated personnel to guard it. Outside vehicles and personnel are strictly prohibited from entering the farm; when entering the production area, one must wash hands and disinfect and pass through a disinfection channel (with a disinfection water pool and ultraviolet light) before entering.

2. Prevent cross-infection.

Keepers in each house are prohibited from moving between farms and posts to prevent cross-infection. The environment of the farm area should be kept clean and pollution-free. Do not underestimate the transmission of infectious diseases by wild birds, and strictly prevent their feces from contaminating feed and exercise yards; insist on regular whole-farm disinfection and duck-included disinfection, and disinfect every day during disease outbreaks; do a good job of rodent control and mosquito and fly control. Dead sick ducks and necropsy disease materials must undergo harmless treatment and must not be left to pollute the environment and cause man-made spread of disease.

3. Disease prevention and treatment.

Veterinarians should frequently perform necropsies on dead sick ducks, and disease materials should be promptly sent for laboratory testing. Medication for prevention and treatment should be based on the results of drug sensitivity tests. After initial medication, veterinarians should still conduct follow-up treatment until recovery. Based on drug sensitivity tests, clinical medication use, age at onset, and season, combined with production practice, veterinarians should obtain the farm's preventive medication program. When selecting drugs, avoid using counterfeit and inferior veterinary drugs, which may delay treatment and lead to serious economic losses.

4. Disease monitoring.

According to the actual local situation, formulate a disease monitoring plan. The diseases routinely monitored by meat duck farms should at least include: highly pathogenic avian influenza, duck plague, and duck viral hepatitis. In addition to the above diseases, other necessary diseases should also be selected for monitoring according to the actual local situation.