BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
Oh, these aren't earthworms, technically, they are the red wrigglers, and they come farmed and would then live their little lives in my worm bin feeding on kitchen scraps and coffee grounds (so not sure they would carry it). That being said, you make an excellent point. But I have pretty much ruled out raising turkeys - I already have my hands full, and I like chicken better than turkey anyway. (I may get Ancona ducks one day, though.) And we already have our hands full with a large feral flock of peafowl in the neighborhood already - that's NOT in my plans...

- Ant Farm

 

[Leigti]

I have found a chicken feed with animal protein in it but it is not exactly cheap. And so far I've only been able to find food with different types of fish in it. No other animal protein. I think the idea of a insect type in the chicken feed is a great plan. I do wish that more chicken feed had animal protein in it. I get angry when I see the "vegetarian" chicken feed. It ranks right up there with the vegetarian dog food.

 

[FaerieChicken]

I was going to ask you guys about fish too. We usually use our eggs to hatch so if we got a fishy egg we'd get over it, but does it affect the taste of meat? I do want to look into feeds that use bug meal, one of my colleagues in college wanted to start a brand of poultry feeds where the main animal protein was the meal of ground up insects, wonder if he got anywhere with that...

We feed our chooks fish scraps all the time, the dried mealworms that we get sometimes get the "Surf n Turf" flavor which has little shrimps and what look to be Dano fish or Zebra fish in them! No difference in egg or meat flavor. The feed I have for them has Fish Oil on it.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
That's really good to know!

 

[Leigti]

I have never heard of surf and turf meal worms. Interesting. I have always heard that if you feed your chickens too much fish or onions then the eggs will taste like that. I've never fed them onions. And I've never noticed a fish taste in the eggs from the fish that is in their food.

 

[3riverschick]

I have never heard of surf and turf meal worms. Interesting. I have always heard that if you feed your chickens too much fish or onions then the eggs will taste like that. I've never fed them onions. And I've never noticed a fish taste in the eggs from the fish that is in their food.

I don't know about fishy taste in eggs from fish in their food....but.... I do know that fishy taste in eggs is a genetic trait.
Best,
Karen

 

[Beekissed]

Just like you cannot do crickets/roaches I simply cannot do maggots.

If you get into turkeys, earthworms are a vector for black head, very lethal for turkeys peafowl and to some extent, guineas. chickens are largely immune to and iirc, can be shedders. Black head is the primary disease of concern if you have heard about keeping turkeys and peafowl separate from chickens.

It's preventable by regular deworming but best to take preventive measure by not feeding it to peacocks/turkeys.. and I would add not to chickens either if either species are in your future plans.

I'm wondering what wild turkeys do...I'm doubting they are passing up any earthworms out there. Free range chickens are also prone to gobbling up any earthworms they spot and I've not had to deworm a free range flock in 40 yrs.

I'm thinking the whole earthworm vector thing is possibly only an eventuality if someone already has a parasite or blackhead problem in their flocks due to a too high stocking rate on the soils.

 

[lpatelski]

what Isa javelina? And I wasn't aware that the US pork was safe to feed raw. That's good to know. Although I still flinch a little at feeding raw pork. I feed my dog and cat a raw food diet but never pork.

Most commercial pork is grown inside under controlled conditions for this very reason. It is NOT safe to eat under cooked pork you got from your neighbor who raised the pigs on the dirt. Wild animals can walk through the feed lot and deposit these parasites; consequently infecting livestock.


TRICHINELLA spp, parasitic worms of PIGS, DOGS and CATS. Biology, prevention and control
Trichinella is a genus of parasitic roundworms that affects mainly pigs, but also dogs, cats, horses, and numerous wild mammals (foxes, wolves, bears, wild boars, raccoons, etc.). It is also a human parasite. It is found worldwide but with varying prevalence depending on the countries. As a general rule prevalence is higher in less

developed regions with predominant traditional small-scale pig farming.
Trichinella spiralis is the most frequent species on pig and other domestic animals worldwide, but other species such as Trichinella britovi and Trichinella nativa can have regional importance.
The disease caused by Trichinella worms is called trichinosis, trichiniasis ortrichinellosis.
Are animals infected with Trichinella worms contagious for humans?

• YES, but not through simple contact (with hair, feces, etc.), but through ingestion of contaminated and insufficiently cooked meat or other tissues. For additional information read the chapter below on prevention and control.

You can find additional information in this site on the general biology of parasitic worms and/or roundworms.

Final location of Trichinella worms

Predilection site of adult Trichinella worms is the small intestine. Larvae are found mainly in the muscles.
Anatomy of Trichinella worms

Adult Trichinella worms are among the smallest parasitic roundworms. Females are not longer than 6 mm, males only half this size. As most roundworms, their body is covered with a cuticle, which is flexible but rather tough. The worms have no external signs of segmentation. They have a tubular digestive system with two openings, the mouth and the anus. They also have a nervous system but no excretory organs and no circulatory system, i.e. neither a heart nor blood vessels. The female ovaries are large and the uteri end in an opening called the vulva.
Trichinella females are viviparous, i.e. they do not lay eggs, but already developed L1-larvae, a total of about 2'000 during their short life span.
Life cycle of Trichinella worms

Trichinella worms have a direct life cycle, whereby it is one of the few species that can complete its life cycle without spending part of its development in the environment. Adult females in the small intestine of a final host release several thousand larvae (about 100 micrometers long) that penetrate into the gut's wall and reach the blood stream or the lymphatic system. They are passively carried forward to the muscles, where they encapsulate. They prefer blood-rich skeletal muscles, but may settle also in the tongue, the heart, the diaphragm or the eyes. In such capsules the affected muscle cell becomes a nurse cell for the larva: it nourishes and keeps it alive for years. In fact, it is a very special case of a multicellular organism living inside a single cell of another organism. After egg laying, the adult females are shed out with the feces of the host and die.
The encapsulate larvae remain there until the host is eaten by another potential host. In its stomach the nurse cells are digested, the larvae are released, migrate to the small intestine, burrow into its wall, complete development to adults and reproduce.
Harm caused by Trichinella infections, symptoms and diagnosis

Migrating larvae irritate the affected tissues and organs. Infections in pigs can cause unspecific signs such as fever, diarrhea, muscular pain and edema, but are usually rather benign. In dogs and cats most infections are benign and remain undiagnosed. In affected pigs larvae are particularly numerous in the jaw muscles and the diaphragm.
In dogs and cats most infections are benign and remain undiagnosed.
Human infections are substantially more dangerous. Fever, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and sweating have been reported. Other symptoms depend on the affected organs. If essential organs are effected (heart, respiratory muscles, brain) fatalities are possible in less than 2 weeks after infection.
Diagnosis through fecal or urine examinations is not possible, because infected hosts shed neither eggs nor larvae. Diagnosis in pigs is usually done after slaughter through microscopic examination of meat samples. Immunoassays (e.g. ELISA) are also available for early detection in humans and pigs.
Prevention and control of Trichinella infections

Best prevention in endemic regions is to thoroughly cook whatever food of animal origin is fed to the pigs, dogs and cats. They should not be allowed to scavenge or hunt for whatever animals that could be infected (e.g. rats and mice).
To avoid transmission to humans, pigs slaughtered in abattoirs are routinely examined for Trichinella infections almost worldwide, and infected carcasses are confiscated. In rural regions, if home slaughter is practiced, samples of meat should be brought to a veterinarian for adequate examination. If this is not possible pork, chicken and whatever meat must be cooked at least at ~80°C: wait 3 minutes before eating. Freezing below -25°C during at least 20 days in pieces smaller than 15 cm thick shoul kill Trichinella larvae in pork, but not in meat of wild animals infected with otherTrichinella species. Unfortunately curing (salting), drying, smoking, or microwaving pork or other meat does not consistently kill infective worms.
The use of anthelmintics against Trichinella infections is seldom indicated in animals. Some classic anthelmintics (e.g. benzimidazoles such as albendazole or mebendazole, etc.) may kill adult worms in the intestine, but not the larvae in the muscles or other organs. Several macrocyclic lactones (e.g. doramectin, ivermectin, milbemycin oxime)have shown efficacy against Trichinella larvae in laboratory studies, but so far there are no commercial wormers approved for use against Trichinella infections on livestock or pets.
There are so far no true vaccines against Trichinella, neither for livestock, nor for pets. To learn more about vaccines against parasites of livestock and pets click here.
Biological control of Trichinella worms (i.e. using its natural enemies) is so far not feasible. Learn more about biological control of worms.
You may be interested in an article in this site on medicinal plants against external and internal parasites.
Resistance of Trichinella worms to anthelmintics

So far there are no reports on resistance of Trichinella worms to anthelmintics.
This means that if an anthelmintic fails to achieve the expected efficacy, chance is very high that it was not due to resistance but to incorrect use, or the product was unsuited for the control of these parasites. Incorrect use is the most frequent cause of failure of antiparasitic drugs.
Learn more about parasite resistance and how it develops.

 

[Beer can]

My old reproduction book on keeping poultry on scraps (war time Britain) suggests fish and fish meal, including detailed instructions for cooking up heads and bones (they were rationing so it was illegal to give "human edible" food to them). But I'm worried about a fishy taste to the eggs. 

I got a pretty good kitten food, but it was quite pricey. I need to look at the cheaper ones. I get sort of paralyzed in the store, there are SOOOOOO many options... I really just need to get some meat. 

- Ant Farm 

I read somewhere that capons were brought about cause it was illegal to feed them, fatten them with grains.

 

[Kev]

I'm wondering what wild turkeys do...I'm doubting they are passing up any earthworms out there. Free range chickens are also prone to gobbling up any earthworms they spot and I've not had to deworm a free range flock in 40 yrs.

I'm thinking the whole earthworm vector thing is possibly only an eventuality if someone already has a parasite or blackhead problem in their flocks due to a too high stocking rate on the soils.

I'm not sure how often wild turkeys ingest earth worms.. do they dig a lot like chickens do> Seems they more walk along picking things off plants, surfaces...

if they get black head, they die and disappear from view via predators and scavengers, once the symptoms start they go down hill extremely fast.

That is also true of Marek's and fowl pox. It is common not every where yet a lot want vaccinated chicks. It also takes just one infected bird to enter the premises........ not necessarily an management issue.