Now, before ya get too concerned? Blackhead is just this one guy's best guess, based upon little information ... it ain't definitive, yet. And, my personal experience w/ it is nil ... I'm just diggin' up some more details, most of which require casportpony's closest review. If this is, indeed, what you've got to deal w/ then know this: It can be defeated, and the logical course is to treat the bird for internal parasites w/ something proven save/effective against the vector of the responsible protozoan, so as to hopefully control the level of the infection, should they be present -- this buys a bit of time, which isn't even needed if my best guess was wrong (believe it, or not? It wouldn't be the first time ~'-)
At this point, you're considering internal parasites, and cecal worms (Heterakis gallinae) will most likely be among them, and are a vector of Histomonas meleagridis, the agent that causes blackhead.
A 'good to know' fact: Chinese ringneck pheasant was the best host for cecal worms, followed by chickens and
guinea fowl.
Both albendazole and fenbendazole are very effective against cecal worms, but do nothing to the responsible protozoan.
Despite any claims otherwise, the benzimidazoles are ineffective as well. Specifically, of albendazole, fenbendazole, flubendazole, mebendazole, and nocodazole, "...all tested drugs showed no efficacy, [on H. meleagridis in vitro]."
There *may* be another way, in that some wormers actually *do* effectively eliminate the protozoa responsible as well. Unfortunately, very effective treatments for this protozoan parasite have been pulled from the market, but there's some that can be cross-referenced for off-label use (not that we chicken-keeper would ever do such a thing ~'-)
And, STOP: I've not researched this well, but just pullin' sources TO BE CHECKED for both efficacy, and the potential that some may contain other unwanted and/or dangerous active ingredients.
For example, there's some things on
eBay that might be worth lookin' at ...
ZOOPAN Tricobacter 100gr and Tricobacter 2 in 1 both contain Dimetridazole, Sulfadimetoxina and Vitamin K3.
Moureau CCP 50 tab. contains Dimetridazole, Sulfadimethoxine, Trimethoprime, Piperazine and Neomycine
MedPet Canker Combo 100g contains Dimetridazole 1000 mg, and Ronidazole 500 mg.
Again: DO NOT DOSE w/ these products. I've just found new studies which indicate other possible treatments, such as some nitroimidazoles, and specifically
Dimetridazole, as highly effective. However, one source reports it is classified as 'hazmat' and a possible mutagen, which is good cause considerable study.
http://lib.bioinfo.pl/paper:15135862
Jinghui Hu, L R McDougald
Department of Poultry Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Nine drugs with known or suspected antiprotozoal activity were tested in vitro, and in vivo for activity against Histomonas meleagridis. The nitroimidazoles dimetridazole, metronidazole, ornidazole, and tinidazole suppressed growth of H. meleagridis in vitro at 10 microg/ml or higher. Paromomycin sulfate, and carbadox were weakly effective at high levels. Quinolinol, mebendazole, diloxanide furoate, and albendazole had no demonstrable efficacy in vitro. Drugs showing some activity in vitro were tested in young chickens inoculated intracloacally with 2 x 10(5) H. meleagridis/bird. Dimetridazole, metronidazole, ornidazole, and tinidazole were highly effective at 200 ppm in feed. Paromomycin sulfate, and carbadox were ineffective in vivo, with no improvement in liver or cecal lesion scores compared to that of infected controls. Thus, the only new entities with efficacy against blackhead disease in vivo were nitroimidazoles, related to the positive control dimetridazole.
There were also studies that did not declare the formulations combined w/ the product RepaXol, but proved effective.
From the poutrysite: Historically nitro-imidazoles (e.g. dimetridazole), nitrofurans (e.g. furazolidone, nifursol) and arsenicals (e.g.nitarsone) have been used to treat this important disease of poultry. At the time of writing no products of these groups are approved for use in the European Union, and only nitarsone is approved in the USA. Arsenicals are less effective in treatment than they are in prevention. Some herbal products based on the essential oils (e.g. 'Herban)' have been used with some apparent success though controlled trials and formal approval for this purpose are not recorded. Intensive relittering may help reduce the level of infection, given recent new knowledge on the mechanism of transmission.
From a report regarding blackhead in turkey: There are currently no drugs approved for use as treatments for histomoniasis. A single drug (nitarsone) is available for prophylaxis by feed medication. Nitarsone is mixed with the feed at 0.01875% and fed continuously. Under most conditions this product is effective, although some outbreaks in turkeys on medication have been reported. Historically, nitroimidazoles such as ronidazole, ipronidazole, and dimetridazole were used for prevention and treatment and were highly effective. Some of these products can be used by veterinary prescription in non-food-producing birds. Frequent worming of chickens with benzimidazole anthelmintics helps reduce exposure to heterakid worms that carry the infection.
