Garlic is Effective in Preventing and Treating Pullorum Disease in Chicks

Pullorum disease is an acute infectious disease caused by Salmonella pullorum, characterized in chicks by white, pasty, loose droppings; if not treated promptly, it often causes mass deaths. In recent years we have tried using garlic to prevent and treat pullorum disease in chicks: a total of 83,600 chicks were protected, with an effective protection rate of over 96%; 6,227 sick chicks were treated, of which 5,918 were cured, a cure rate of 95%, showing remarkable results.

1. Treatment methods

1. Select locally grown purple-skinned garlic, peel off the outer skin, crush it, and mix it into the feed; use 0.5-1 g per sick chick, mixed into the feed 3 times a day.

2. Prepare a 20% garlic juice and give each sick chicken 0.5-1 mL by dropper, 3-4 times a day.

2. Typical case reports

In March of last year, a certain Li in this county raised 1,600 Lohmann Brown chicks. At 8 days of age, sick chickens began to be found; within 3 days, 96 sick chicks appeared and 19 died. The sick chicks showed listlessness, head drawn in and eyes closed, no appetite, huddling together, and passing white, pasty, loose droppings. Necropsy of the sick chicks revealed that the intestines were filled with mucus, and the liver and spleen were enlarged and congested with hemorrhagic spots; the preliminary diagnosis was pullorum disease in chicks. The poultry owner was immediately asked to raise the sick and healthy chicks separately, strengthen management, appropriately raise the temperature of the brooding room, use warm water mixed with 20% garlic juice, and give each sick chicken 1 mL by dropper 3 times a day, while feeding the healthy chicks mashed garlic. After 3 days of treatment, apart from 3 sick chicks that died despite treatment, most of the other sick chicks improved and had an appetite; mashed garlic mixed into the feed was then used for another two days of treatment, and the sick chicks recovered completely. The healthy chicks, having been given mashed garlic as a preventive measure, did not develop the disease again.

3. Experience in prevention and treatment

1. Pullorum disease occurs mainly in chicks around two weeks of age, mostly through infection of the digestive tract and respiratory tract; carrier adult chickens can transmit it vertically through eggs. Therefore, good brooding-period feeding management and disinfection of breeding eggs before incubation are key to preventing this disease.

2. Treatment trials show that garlic has a good therapeutic effect on pullorum disease in chicks. Early cases generally recover within 1-3 days; in the middle and late stages, because the condition worsens and secondary infection occurs, effective antibacterial drugs must be used in combination. Therefore, in clinical practice, early detection and early treatment are needed to achieve ideal results.

3. In the early stage of treatment, sick chicks have no appetite, so garlic juice is first given by dropper; after appetite returns, mashed garlic is mixed into the feed. During treatment, feeding management should be strengthened and plenty of clean drinking water provided.

4. During the brooding period, mixing mashed garlic into the feed can effectively prevent the occurrence of this disease. Preventive trial observations at several larger chicken farms in this county proved that using garlic to prevent pullorum disease in chicks is reliable. For example, the parent-stock chicken farm in Pingyuan County has raised 7 batches of chicks since 1996, totaling 56,000, and because garlic was used for prevention and feeding management was strengthened, the occurrence of pullorum disease in chicks was effectively controlled, with a brooding survival rate of over 96%.

5. Traditional Chinese veterinary medicine holds that garlic is pungent and warm, enters the spleen and stomach meridians, and has the effects of promoting digestion, resolving food stagnation, detoxifying and stopping toxins, and stopping bleeding and diarrhea. Modern medical research shows that garlic contains allicin, which inhibits and kills many kinds of intestinal bacteria. Garlic is cheap and easy to obtain, and treatment is simple, so people are willing to accept it; therefore it can be widely used to prevent and treat pullorum disease in chickens and other intestinal diseases.