BR Turkey with some really interesting "issues"

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
CARS, whatever happened with your turkey? How is she?

 

[CARS]

How is she?? She tasted great!!!

A little small for a turkey, but I had to take some other's in for processing anyway.

(The butcher laughed at me. I think the whole crew had fun at my/her expense, but they did cut me a break on processing costs!)

 

[Arielle]

Steve_of_sandspoultry wrote:

CARS wrote:

Follow up question. Lets say I can "cure" the Turk, Is it going to be good for breeding or is this a genetic issue and I should cull??

I don't breed any turkeys with any type of "issues" at all. Slow growth, keeping off themselves, runts etc etc etc get the black leg band with marks a cull here, only the best of the best make it to breeder status. Alot of the "experts" and cut and paste people will tell you it isn't passed on but I can tell from personal experience that if you cull heavy your overall flock health will improve by leaps and bounds. I haven't had a curled toe or wry neck turkey in many years, on the other side we got pheasants last year and about 1 in 30 have wry necks, give me a couple years for an update on them. They eat the same feed, hatch in the same 'bator so you tell me where it comes from?

Steve

Tunastopper

I think your biggest clue is your turkey has had this a long time.


When I read on line it said. Don Schrider's (ALBC & Master Breeder) comments might be helpful and so for informational purposes for the forum:

". . .he does not think the wry neck is a genetic issue. He said it can also be nutritional, incubational, accidental or disease. He said he feels good about eliminating nutritional and disease so that leaves incubational or accidental. He said most likely if you had a hatch whereby the chick was a late hatcher that is most likely the reason. He said chicks that are late that also are combined with having difficulty getting out of the shell can develop wry neck or crooked toes. He said in addition to that, crooked toes can be a result of inbreeding when numbers are low but can also be caused due to low humidity in the incubator and late hatching because if the chick is in the shell too long and the toes remain curled up for a length of time they could be crooked for life, or also to the use of infra-red heat bulbs. He said that was in a University of Minnesota study. He said his feeling is it might be a humidity issue on all accounts and he was positive about it all and pretty comfortable with it not being anything genetic, nutritional or disease. "

I thought this was interesting. While as issue might be environmentally based, culling can reduce the incidence. Food for thought.​

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
I don't breed any turkeys with any type of "issues" at all. Slow growth, keeping off themselves, runts etc etc etc get the black leg band with marks a cull here, only the best of the best make it to breeder status. Alot of the "experts" and cut and paste people will tell you it isn't passed on but I can tell from personal experience that if you cull heavy your overall flock health will improve by leaps and bounds. I haven't had a curled toe or wry neck turkey in many years, on the other side we got pheasants last year and about 1 in 30 have wry necks, give me a couple years for an update on them. They eat the same feed, hatch in the same 'bator so you tell me where it comes from?

Steve

I believe that sometimes wry neck can be caused by accident or a nutritional deficiency.. however when all of the birds are eating the same thing.. and only one has an issue with wry neck (and you're sure it wasnt from an accident or incubation mishap) then I do believe it's genetic.
In my opinion (and I had an avian vet tell me this).. it's where the bird can not utilize the nutrients in the feed... which would be a genetic issue.. so any birds I get that have any issues (wry neck, bad beaks, runts and so forth) get culled.. i don't want problem birds in my flock..

 

[Lagerdogger]

I had a Bourbon Red hen with similar issues last year. It seemed to respond well to vitamins, but when it came time to butcher it was still severely underweight and just didn't look good on the inside. She ended up in compost camp rather than freezer camp.