AGRO SOLUTIONS

Cold period is getting closer and this is usually a difficult period for local fowl because of a particular disease that usually attacks them. A guide piece on how to mitigate this will be timely now, thanks.    Ishiaku Yebo, Bida, Niger State   During harmattan, local chickens often face a deadly disease, which attacks […]

Cold period is getting closer and this is usually a difficult period for local fowl because of a particular disease that usually attacks them. A guide piece on how to mitigate this will be timely now, thanks. 

 

Ishiaku Yebo, Bida, Niger State

 

During harmattan, local chickens often face a deadly disease, which attacks them in numbers. Poor access to the right vaccine for the prevention of the disease has been a major problem over the year. 

Newcastle is the major disease that mostly affects local chickens during harmattan. The viral disease is characterised by chickens turning their necks as if they were possessed.

The disease has no cure but can be prevented through vaccination. The major problem with this disease is that there is no proper or adequate diagnosis.

Local farmers can vaccinate them before the harmattan or supplement them with immune boosters like multivitamins, and also give them antibiotics like oxytetracycline. 

Apart from vaccination, farmers can also increase their feed ration to give them energy so as to combat the effect of the weather.

For vaccination, there is injectable one and non-injectable one, which is normally mixed with non-chlorinated water. Each vaccine has its own recommendation on how to administer it to the chickens. You can give them the vaccine at the end of October and give them again two months after.

Also, there are local practices like feeding them the leaves of certain plants. Some put pepper to their drinking water. 

Above all, poultry farmers need to adopt good management practices, such as cleaning the poultry house every day to avoid contamination. 

Nancy Daniel, is a Kaduna-based livestock expert