Causes of Mortality in Backyard Chickens in Northern California: 2007–2011

[casportpony]

Source:http://www.aaapjournals.info/doi/abs/10.1637/10382-092312-Case.1

Article Citation:
Aslı Mete, Federico Giannitti, Bradd Barr, Leslie Woods, and Mark Anderson (2013) Causes of Mortality in Backyard Chickens in Northern California: 2007–2011. Avian Diseases: June 2013, Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 311-315.


Case Reports


Causes of Mortality in Backyard Chickens in Northern California: 2007–2011
Aslı Mete A, Federico Giannitti , Bradd Barr , Leslie Woods , and Mark Anderson
California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System (CAHFS), Davis, CA 95617-1770

SUMMARY​

A 5-yr retrospective study was conducted to characterize the spectrum of diseases causing mortality in 1301 backyard chickens submitted to the California Animal Health and Food Safety laboratory in Davis, California. Infectious diseases were diagnosed in the majority (60.4%). Viral diseases comprised 50% of the infectious entities, followed by bacterial diseases with an incidence of 39%. Marek's disease in the viral group and Escherichia coli in the bacterial group were the most commonly diagnosed infectious diseases. Zoonotic agents including Aspergillus sp., Salmonella sp., Listeria sp., Mycobacterium sp., Candida sp., and Baylisascaris sp. were detected in 46 (3.5%) birds. Among noninfectious conditions, fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome and reproductive tract adenocarcinoma were the leading causes of mortality. This analysis provides an overview of backyard chicken diseases for practitioners and avian pathologists working with backyard poultry. In addition, this study illustrates that backyard chickens do not seem to pose a major risk to public health, although zoonoses do comprise a notable portion (5.9% of all infectious cases) of isolated agents.

 

[seminolewind]

Wow. Nice report. (But we have already assumed that) LOL. Got to hand it to you finding this informative stuff.

 

[casportpony]

My UC Davis necropsies back that up... Almost all of them have fallen into one of those categories. And the EYP ones I've done at home probably would have revealed e. Coli as well. What I'd really like to see is a Letterman style top ten written in plain english, without the humor, of course. Lol, maybe with it

!

-Kathy

 

[Haunted55]

My UC Davis necropsies back that up... Almost all of them have fallen into one of those categories. And the EYP ones I've done at home probably would have revealed e. Coli as well. What I'd really like to see is a Letterman style top ten written in plain english, without the humor, of course. Lol, maybe with it

!

-Kathy

Kathy, have you ever heard of aspirin along with vitamin E may help/cure E.coli? I just was reading something about that and had never heard of it before.

I'm afraid to see what the leading cause of death here is....is there a catagory for stupidity? How about neglect?

The Listeria is something I never even thought about.....I thought that was something only available in my hot dogs. Seriously, never thought chickens could get that.

 

[casportpony]

Never heard about e and aspirin for e. Coli, but I think most e. Coli are sensitive to Baytril, so that or Clavamox is what I use when I suspect it.

-Kathy