Haven't been here for a while but thought I put in my 2 cents. Operate a multi-species fowl gamefarm - including std/bantam chickens, various duck breeds primarily focusing on calls, various pheasants, various quail for a umber of years and have seen a lot relating to diseases, etc. Why I am posting this is for awareness purposes so people do not get too single-focussed. Here are some things that really need to be adhered to. I am not going to spend a on the general areas as people who want to be truly in this business need to adhere to already. Location of these birds amongst themselves and keeping one type/breed from others (meaning pheasants shouldn't be mixed with ducks, quail from chickens, etc.) Some birds are more transmissible to other fowl and not always to all fowl (cortnix is much more tolerable then BW types) Isolate, isolate, isolate - can't preach enough on any sick bird - even just with mites as well. Birds anatomy and defensive mechanism is not like humans. What may take days to "doom" a human or a hoofed animal is only hours or a day or two ijn fowl. CLEANLYNESS IS AN ABOSOLUTE MUS - especially when it comes to unhealthy droppings or old feed. When weather consitions are bad for the raw feed types (unforseen fungus on corn, etc.) it can raise havoc on fowl - especially waterfowl or even a certain breed of waterfowl. Keep an open mind and write down all the symptoms. Note dates/times of year/other animals nearby (horselovers - don't raise ducks unless your horseys have been tested for EEE, etc.), temperature, feed color if you mix your own (e.i. cracked corn/scratch grains, aditives, etc.) Here are things that I haven't seen a whole lot on this forum and I know it has affected me and others. 1. Misquitoes - bad news and hard to control because of not wanting to spray insecticides. These bad boys carry a lot more then West Nile. Just like black flies too. 2. Feed types such as corn. The GMO types out there have improved somewhat BUT have not been tested well enough on the small time fowl operator - meaning testing, if passed, has been on the large farms. But what has become more critical is the unuusal deaths/sickness that come through the swaps or private sales. Also the US has had a few bad years of recent in various rust/fungus molds that really do't show up by the naked eye that has killed thousands of fowl - some suddenly, mostly over a prelonged period of use of what though was good feed. Even the ethanaol plants can't use bad corn as it screws up the distillers. So they are either stuck with a big pile of corn just paid for or sell it for at least something to get it off their lot. Problem is that some of these not so trusting" mill operators who turns around an sells . . . (you get the pic) and makes a heck of a profit. So know you feed supplier very well and note of raw stock as corn and beans what they trully should look and smell. 3. Watch out - that Avian flu has'nt gone away. Rather it's ugly head is popping up more and more (do a Google Search and who be amazed how much it is in this country. Problem is new strains are showing up and there is no meds yet and it is killing people). But it doesn't stop here - there are lots of other diseases transmissable between fowl to humans to pets and then back to fowl. Highly recommend limiting people and outside activity entering premis. All it takes is one bad "slip" to create a new disease or change a disease to something that we no longer can control. Earth is always changing and mankind is changing earth. So practice, practice good common sense or we will all pay for it sooner then later. So that is my 2 cents. Botuism and various other toxins are a real concern at present. People ARE short cutting because of the economy in which they still have to provide an income to shareholders. So they add an alternative step such as spraying a chemical in dryers so to preserve "bad" corn that should not be there in first place. What corn or beans or other cereals work for a beef cow or hog does not always work for fowl. Even though fowl eat a lot of junk free-ranging, their body chemistry is no where the same as a cow. They show diseases quicker and die a lot sooner. Problem is - like what some vets out there state - costs are too high these days for consumers to beable to have necropsies, etc. done. And that's bad news - because anything serious that may wipe out animal and human is going to start at the small level. It is just a matter of getting all "the ducks in a row" (no punn intended) before it happens. Again my 2 cents. Woody
Soory about posting it twice. Just came across this and it is going to scare the pants off of you. Like I said we may have doomed ourselves besides the unusual happening of Sudden Death to our beloved fowl. And unless you grow your own from virgin seed in virgin soil - their isn't ........ Again my 2 cents. Woody Here's the website for that article - http://inteldaily.com/2011/02/scien...angerous-new-pathogen-and-monsanto’s-roundup/
