biosecurity after gapeworm

[JakRat]

One of my girls has gapeworm. She is in quarantine at the moment on meds. My questions is: How do you clean out the coop to make sure that no one else gets gapeworm?

 

[Judy]

Honestly, I'd medicate them all.

 

[kcsunshine]

What med are you using?

 

[sourland]

I think that gapeworms need to pass through an intermediary host like earthworms. I'm not positive on that so don't flame me if I am incorrect. Try a search to see if that is so. If it is, and if your hen has been positively diagnosed my guess is that the worms in your pen/yard are serving as intermediary hosts.

 

[sourland]

Gapeworms are transmitted in several ways. They may be contracted through eating embryonated gapeworm eggs (perhaps in coop bedding but more likely in the pen or yard) or more commonly through the ingestion of earthworms, slugs, or snails that serve as intermediary hosts for the gapeworm larvae. A search indicates that the larvae may remain viable in earthworms for more than 4 yrs and up to a year in slugs or snails. I am absolutely clueless as to how one would decontaminate their yard or pen. If you have a confirmed/diagnosed case of gapeworm it may be necessary to worm the entire flock periodically.

Info from a search that I conducted.

 

[BCbirder]

I had a hen with Gapeworm and it seemed so hopeless when I read all the info on gapeworm.
I did make the mistake of putting her in another pen and realized after that as she pooped she was contaminating the soil in the new pen.

My hen was in the pen for over a month before I knew what it was so she really contaminated the pen and it did not result in an outbreak at all. The pen is big and I made two other pens that they can take turns going into, but knowing earthworms move around...it would seem impossible to eliminate the problem.

It has been years and I have not had another hen that has the symptoms of gapeworm. They all seem healthy and plump.
I have relaxed since.

Gapeworm is in earthworms, the hen that got gapeworm just loved earthworms. She was always first when I was digging in the garden.
I do not worm my chickens. I think if they are healthy that they can handle worms. I always have a dirt bath with DE in it. It is supposed to help if they eat it to help with parasites.
I live in BC. We get a lot of rain, not sure if it helps get rid of things in the ground?

 

[JakRat]

They vet gave me a panacur suspension. It seems to be working. Whew though on cleaning the coop. We dont have earthworms in the coop so hopefully it will be fine. No more earthworms for them!!!

We are just going to give the coop a good cleaning and hopefully I can be at peace with it.

 

[mithious]

I know this is an old post but I was reading an old article, as we have gapeworm, not diagnosed by a vet or fecal test, but treated them, after having one start with the "gaping" and some brown runny poo's, then another one, ect and they are getting better! I found that salting the run will kill, not only the earthworms in the ground in the run, but the gapeworms, all the way down to the eggs...here is the link. The studies were done back in the 1800's in France, due to the loses they were having from "the gapes" as they called it. A very interesting, but long article, and you have to scroll down quite a bit to get to the actual article. At the end of the article, it lists a few products that got rid of "the gapes", the best ( and quickest ) one was salting the ground. I have a fixed run and it can not be moved, so I guess, although it will never again have grass, after I do this, I will be salting it. I am going to try the rock salt, as that is all we have today, in large quantities. The article says the vector for the gapeworm is the earthworm, not sure if other species have now become hosts, but back then, the earthworm was the culprit. It's a really informative read, if you can get through it all, if you just want the info on treating the land, it is at the end of the article.

http://www.archive.org/stream/gapewormoffowlss00walkrich/gapewormoffowlss00walkrich_djvu.txt

 

[kcsunshine]

I hope you're planning on moving out your chickens before you salt. Salt will kill them quicker than gapeworms.

 

[dawg53]

I hope you're planning on moving out your chickens before you salt.  Salt will kill them quicker than gapeworms.

x2
Yes, the salt would have to tilled into the soil not only from not killing the chickens, but to effectively kill the oocysts in the soil...as stated in the link.