Dying chickens

[speckledhen]

Can you post your ingredient label.

Does your feed have probiotics and prebiotics in it? Could possibly be Asperigillus Niger which can be used as a probiotic.

Really? Mold used as a probiotic? Hmm. I never heard that. I looked up what that is and this is what I found:



Quote: Bizarre if that would be a probiotic. Anyway, I'd like to see the feed label, too.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Quote: Bizarre if that would be a probiotic. Anyway, I'd like to see the feed label, too.
I would have thought the same thing

But googling looks like it may be used as a probiotic. At first was thinking about the lactobacillus which is found in yogurt, etc. This is in the feed I use (I think - will have to find a label).

No telling what exactly is found in the feed, and the paper labels do change I have noticed. There are also "scientific papers" if you search for "Aspergillus Niger In Poultry Feed" this brings up quite a few results, but most of that info is above my education level

http://nootriment.com/aspergillus-niger/

 

[speckledhen]

I would have thought the same thing

But googling looks like it may be used as a probiotic. At first was thinking about the lactobacillus which is found in yogurt, etc. This is in the feed I use (I think - will have to find a label).

No telling what exactly is found in the feed, and the paper labels do change I have noticed. There are also "scientific papers" if you search for "Aspergillus Niger In Poultry Feed" this brings up quite a few results, but most of that info is above my education level

http://nootriment.com/aspergillus-niger/

Well, considering that penicillin was discovered from mold, well, who the heck knows, right? I mean, it just seems counterintuitive. Aspergillosis is a bad thing in chickens so to put aspergillus in feed seems weird.

 

[aart]

OK, so I discovered there is aspergillus in my chicken feed, dried I think and on the ingredient list. Been using it for a few months now. Although I would presume it to be safe.... do you have any idea if it is any different?

@EggSighted4Life Post brand name and formulation...and a pic of ingredient list....please.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Purina Flock Raiser in the green bag. checked twice and three times.... hard to see that small, but I think that's what it says... DRIED if that makes any difference.

Thank you all for the rapid response!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Purina Flock Raiser in the green bag. checked twice and three times.... hard to see that small, but I think that's what it says... DRIED if that makes any difference.

Thank you all for the rapid response!

This is what I use as well. But I don't have the bag or the paper tag. No list of ingredients on their website

(of course). I don't have my last bag or the paper tag that has ingredients listed.


I am not a nutritionist, but two I keep running into listed for use in animal feed are dried Aspergillus niger which is a fermentation extract and dried Aspergillus oryzae which is a fermentation product.

 

[aart]

OK, I use Flock Raiser also and had a fresh bag in quarantine out in the garage so grabbed the tag and took a pic....
....and found a pic of an old tag too, from 2014 when it had the 'sunfresh recipe', way different ingredients there.
Don't think they make the sunfresh recipe anymore, couldn't in find it on their website, but didn't look very hard.
Purina's website has always been heavy on marketing and light on real info.
I quit using this feed a year or so ago because of a massive infestation of grain mites coming in with the feed,
I have since gone back to it and just quarantine and treat each bag with DE while transferring to my feed bins.
Interesting to see DE in the ingredients of the latest bag...hmmmm, will see if I can find older bags.


Also did some googling...Aspergillus is a genus with several hundred species.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergillus
"Some species can cause infection in humans and other animals."

I didn't read the whole thing but I assume that other species do not cause infection....thus their inclusion in animal feed and probably many other uses.
Gotta be careful when reading Latin taxonomy binomial nomenclature not to jump to conclusions but look further to species.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

OK, I use Flock Raiser also and had a fresh bag in quarantine out in the garage so grabbed the tag and took a pic....
....and found a pic of an old tag too, from 2014 when it had the 'sunfresh recipe', way different ingredients there.
Don't think they make the sunfresh recipe anymore, couldn't in find it on their website, but didn't look very hard.
Purina's website has always been heavy on marketing and light on real info.
I quit using this feed a year or so ago because of a massive infestation of grain mites coming in with the feed,
I have since gone back to it and just quarantine and treat each bag with DE while transferring to my feed bins.
Interesting to see DE in the ingredients of the latest bag...hmmmm, will see if I can find older bags.


Also did some googling...Aspergillus is a genus with several hundred species.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergillus
"Some species can cause infection in humans and other animals."

I didn't read the whole thing but I assume that other species do not cause infection....thus their inclusion in animal feed and probably many other uses.
Gotta be careful when reading Latin taxonomy binomial nomenclature not to jump to conclusions but look further to species.

X2
I did some googling as well. Some of those articles I ran across made my head hurt and my eyes cross.

Interesting @EggSighted4Life that you caught that, life is full of surprises. Learn something new everyday. It's sort of like when you read the ingredient label on yogurt. You may see S. thermophilus they abbreviate that "S" possibly for room on the label or do they abbreviate it because the "S" stands for Streptococcus? When we hear or read that word, we think the worst right? But apparently there are other strains/species that are beneficial.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptococcus_thermophilus

FWIW according to several references on Aspergillosis - which is the term used for illness like @TerryH encountered (fungal respiratory illness/death) the most common cause is by Aspergillus fumigatus and sometimes a few other species as well, so same species, different strain than what is in the feed. (I think I have that right).

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/7/aspergillosis/

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/poultry/aspergillosis/overview_of_aspergillosis_in_poultry.html

 

[EggSighted4Life]

You guys are great!

Sorry if I raised too much alarm, better safe than sorry. Thank y'all for including links as well.

@aart Interesting that you saw DE on the ingredients. Now I am going to check my label for like the 15th time. I actually switched to this feed to get away from the DE in the other product I was using...

I wonder how often they change the formula and never mention it?

I TRY to learn something new every day.

And am always thankful for what I do learn! Makes sense that some strains are beneficial and sadly others deadly. I didn't realize the word oryzae was part of the same ingredient, which specifies its' strain.

Since I have been trying to decide which feed I like best in that price range, I have spent a lot of time reading labels at a lot of different stores because they don't carry the same products. And yes it's enough to make anybodies' head spin. So far out of what I have available this product has seemed viable enough.

Thanks again!

 

[aart]

@aart Interesting that you saw DE on the ingredients. Now I am going to check my label for like the 15th time. I actually switched to this feed to get away from the DE in the other product I was using...

I wonder how often they change the formula and never mention it?

DE in feed is very common....it's probably it's best, most logical and efficient, application.
It protects stored grains from being infested with grain eating pests.
DE taken internally by food animals won't hurt them.....but it also won't kill any internal parasites the animal might have(as is often touted).

It was especially of interest to me due to the infested bags of Flock Raiser I have had in the past...and I still am seeing some in there.