Causes and prevention methods of feather-pecking vice in chickens

Feather-pecking vice is caused by the deficiency of certain nutrients, metabolic disorders, abnormal taste, or improper feeding and management. Sick chickens peck feathers, peck the cloaca, peck toes, and peck eggs, which not only causes restlessness in the whole flock and affects the growth rate, but also lowers the grade of commercial broilers, increases egg losses and chicken mortality, and causes great economic losses to the production and operation of the @#@230@#@ industry.

1 Cause analysis

1.1 Feeding and management aspects

Excessive stocking density restricts the chickens' activity space; too high a temperature in the chicken house, hot weather, or excessive humidity prevents heat dissipation from the chickens' bodies and makes them restless; too low a house temperature and relative humidity affect the growth of the chickens' feathers; too high light intensity in the house and unsuitable light color keep the chickens' nervous system in a state of high tension; poor ventilation in the chicken house and excessive harmful gases such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide disrupt the chickens' physiological balance; insufficient feed troughs and drinking water utensils, irregular feeding times, and too long a period without water can all trigger fighting during feeding; in addition, unsuitable litter, such as litter containing sharp wood chips that cause trauma, or litter straw entangling the toes, may be mistaken by other chicks for small insects and pecked at; insufficient nesting boxes cause hens to lay eggs on the ground at random, and chickens eating broken eggs can develop egg-eating vice; in the early laying period, strong light can cause the cloaca to contract, leading to capillary rupture and bleeding, thus causing cloacal pecking; chickens of different ages, different colors, and different strengths mixed together; during molting, chickens peck themselves to relieve itching and occasional bleeding triggers flock pecking.

1.2 Nutritional aspects

Feed is too monotonous and protein is insufficient; methionine, lysine, cystine, glycine, etc. are deficient or unbalanced; certain vitamins are deficient, such as insufficient vitamin A, D, E, K, and B group; minerals such as sodium, copper, cobalt, manganese, iron, calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, and zinc in the feed are insufficient, or the ratios of sodium, potassium, calcium, and phosphorus are imbalanced; the crude fiber content in the feed is insufficient, while the proportion of high-energy, small-volume feed is too large, so that although metabolizable energy is satisfied after eating, the crop is empty and there is no feeling of satiety; certain anticoccidial drugs are used in the feed for a long time.

1.3 Certain diseases cause feather-pecking vice

When chickens suffer from coccidiosis, pullorum disease, or indigestion, the feathers around the cloaca become stuck and scabbed with fecal dirt, causing feather pecking and cloacal pecking; when chickens have parasitic diseases such as feather lice and Dermanyssus gallinae on the body surface, they peck their own feathers because of itching, forming feather-pecking vice; individual chickens suffer trauma; hens have pathogenic or physiological prolapse of the cloaca; chickens infected with infectious bursal disease are prone to tail pecking in the early stage. In addition, incorrect beak trimming can aggravate the occurrence of feather-pecking vice.

2 Comprehensive prevention and control measures

Investigate the causes of the disease, adopt relevant measures, and do everything possible to reduce or eliminate the causes that easily lead to feather-pecking vice.

2.1 Strengthen feeding and management

Strictly control stocking density, flexibly manage the temperature, humidity, light, and ventilation in the chicken house, and strengthen disinfection of the environment inside and outside the house; provide sufficient feed troughs, drinking water utensils, and nesting boxes, feed regularly and quantitatively every day, avoid alternating satiety and hunger, keep the chicken house as quiet as possible, and hang green feed in the chicken house and exercise yard to reduce opportunities for chasing and pecking each other; do not raise chickens of different breeds, ages, constitutions, and colors together; use high-quality litter and eliminate various adverse factors; do a good job in beak trimming and beak repair, generally carried out when chicks are 7-9 days old, cutting off 1/2 of the upper beak and 1/3 of the lower beak; starting two days before beak trimming, add vitamin K 60 mg per kilogram of feed for 5 consecutive days, which gives a better hemostatic effect.

2.2 Reasonably adjust feed composition

According to different breeds and different growth stages, feed high-quality complete feed; when protein is insufficient, supplement some animal protein feed (such as fish meal) or plant protein feed (such as corn gluten meal), but adding soybean meal has a poor effect; when amino acids such as methionine and cystine are insufficient, supplement 1 g of methionine per kilogram of feed; when vitamins are insufficient, supplement the corresponding cod liver oil and multivitamin preparations; when trace elements in the feed are insufficient, appropriately increase the dosage of trace element premix powder; when sulfur in the feed is insufficient, add 1% sodium sulfate or 1%-2% raw gypsum powder; when salt is insufficient, increase the salt content in the feed (0.15%-0.2%) or feed 0.1% saline for 2-3 consecutive days; when the ratios of sodium, potassium, calcium, and phosphorus are imbalanced, adjust them reasonably; when the crude fiber content in the feed is insufficient, add an appropriate amount of unified bran and grass meal to the feed so that the crude fiber content of the feed reaches 3%-5%.

2.3 Do a good job in disease prevention and control and timely handling of sick chickens

Chickens that have been pecked and the "culprits" should be picked out immediately and raised in isolation, so as not to attract other chickens to chase and peck; apply foul-smelling drugs to the pecked wounds, such as tincture of iodine, gentian violet, camphor oil, and ichthammol ointment, which can effectively prevent being pecked again; purify pullorum disease and prevent the occurrence of pullorum disease; do a good job in immunization against infectious bursal disease to prevent tail pecking due to infection with infectious bursal disease; when external parasitic diseases occur, avermectin tablets can be mixed into the feed for feeding; select suitable anticoccidial drugs to prevent and treat chicken coccidiosis; prevent trauma and promptly isolate chickens with trauma; do a good job in the scientific feeding and management of laying hens to prevent physiological and pathological prolapse of the cloaca, and promptly isolate and handle chickens with prolapse of the cloaca.