What are the key measures for duck disease prevention and control? A must-read for duck farmers

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 include bleaching powder, Xiaoduwang, Mieduwei, etc., and iodine preparations include 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 medicine should be sprayed for disinfection.

Disinfectants that show no difference before and after disinfection and remain ineffective after increasing their concentration should be discarded. After determining an effective disinfection concentration through testing, the cost of the disinfectant should also be considered. Through comparison and calculation, several disinfectants suitable for the farm should ultimately be obtained, with the aim of rotating medications. In this way, the disinfection effect is achieved, the disinfection cost is reduced, and the period of use of one disinfectant on the farm is extended.

2. Follow the disinfection sequence

When disinfecting a duck farm, the sequence should be: first the clean road (the road used to transport feed, etc.), then the dirty road (the road used by manure-cleaning vehicles); first the reserve duck farm area, then the laying duck farm area; first breeding ducks, then commercial ducks. Disinfection buckets inside duck houses must not be borrowed or used interchangeably.

3. Pay attention to the number of disinfections

Under normal circumstances, whole-farm disinfection and disinfection with ducks present should be carried out no less than 2 times per week; during disease outbreaks, disinfection with ducks present should be carried out every day.

II. Do a good job of routine immunization

In order to prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases, farms must formulate a reasonable immunization program to protect the health of the duck flock. A duck flock in one area may be susceptible to 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 (immune period) also differs. Therefore, when a certain 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. Preventive injections given to duck flocks should not only reduce the waste of manpower and material resources, but also improve immunization quality; the key is to look at 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 is itself a kind of stress for the duck flock. 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 must first be brought back to room temperature; otherwise, the vaccine injected under the skin will form a vaccine mass and be difficult to absorb. In summer, when the climate is hot, during vaccination, sufficient drinking water must first be ensured, and the immunization time should be arranged as much as possible in the cool early morning. During immunization, the vaccine should be continuously shaken evenly so that each duck can obtain an equal amount of effective antigen immunization. When inoculating tissue attenuated vaccines, the entire immunization process should preferably be controlled within 1.5 hours to prevent long exposure of the vaccine in a duck house with excessively high temperature from affecting the immune activity of the virus.

III. Establish a disease prevention system

1. Guard the entrance well

Strictly mark at the main gate: "Epidemic prevention key area, visitors declined", assign dedicated personnel to guard it, and strictly prohibit outside vehicles and personnel from entering; when entering the production area, one must wash hands and disinfect and pass through a disinfection channel (with a disinfection 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 farm environment should be kept clean and free of contamination. 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 disinfection with ducks present, and disinfect every day during disease outbreaks; do a good job of rodent control and mosquito and fly control. Dead ducks and necropsy disease materials must be harmlessly treated, and must not be allowed to contaminate the environment and cause man-made spread of disease.

3. Disease prevention and treatment

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