Sick chicken flocks are often seen in the production of poultry farming layer battery cages. The lack of typical clinical symptoms and pathological changes brings some difficulties to diagnosis and treatment, which directly affects the economic benefits of the chicken industry. In our long-term breeding practice, we have found that such diseased chickens are often caused by chronic infection of an atypical disease, or mixed infection of several atypical diseases, or mixed coexistence of multiple factors. In summary, there are pathology, management, nutrition and other reasons.
1. Pathological reasons
Generally speaking, the decrease in egg production and the long-term lack of increase are caused by some viral infectious diseases that affect the ovary of the chicken and affect the ovulation function. Sudden decline is acute, and chronic decline is mostly chronic. Those who do not rise for a long time are the ovarian dysplasia of some chickens in the growing period.
If the egg production rate of chickens suddenly drops, it is mostly caused by atypical Newcastle disease, atypical bird flu, colibacillosis, salmonellosis, and chronic respiratory diseases. The long-term egg production rate does not rise and remains at the level of about 80%, and the drop from high is mostly due to egg laying fatigue. However, the egg production rate is below 80% and cannot reach the peak egg production period. Most of the laying hens are infected during the growing period. If the treatment is not timely or complete, the chicken’s ovaries will be stunted during the rearing period, resulting in low egg production, or ovarian atrophy, and loss of egg production.
2. Management reasons
Scientific management of laying hens is to effectively maintain and improve the overall quality of the chickens during the whole process of growth and development of the chickens. However, poor environmental sanitation, poor ventilation equipment, inadequate disinfection measures, and ineffective disease prevention methods often lead to disease in the growing chickens. Especially during the brooding period, poor indoor heat preservation or uneven room temperature control often leads to poor growth of some chicks. These reasons can cause the disparity between the strength of the flock or the overall quality of the chicken flock. The greater the disparity between the strength of the flock or the lower the overall quality, the lower the egg production rate, and it stays at a low level for a long time.
3. Nutritional reasons
Nutrition is very important to the quality of chickens and egg-laying function. Scientific nutrition is qualified full-price compound feed. Feeds with poor quality, incomplete nutrition, and malnutrition will inevitably cause the egg production rate of chickens to fluctuate or not increase for a long time. Especially moldy feed can cause chronic or acute poisoning of chickens. Long-term insufficient supply of protein, imbalanced calcium and phosphorus ratio, insufficient trace elements, insufficient vitamins or destroyed feed will affect egg production.
4. Reasons for prevention
Incorrect immunization can cause immune failure. It is common for chicken farms to regularly administer drugs for the purpose of disease prevention and health care, forming “antibacterial drugs should be used for disease and disease”, and drugs that should not be used should also be tried. This is not only easy to develop drug resistance, but also easy to cause atypical symptoms after the onset, leading to misdiagnosis. Indiscriminate administration of drugs after the onset of disease not only endangers the health of the body, but also often turns the disease into a chronic condition or causes chronic poisoning due to accumulation of drugs. This brings many troubles and difficulties for correct diagnosis and treatment. In particular, misuse of sulfa drugs during the laying period will reduce the egg production rate.
5. Other reasons
The genetic stability of chickens, long-term climate abnormalities, excessive stress interference, and rodent damage are also reasons that should be considered.
The above are some of the situations that often occur when using poultry farm chicken cages to raise chickens. I hope this can bring some help to the farmers. Make the chicken coop raise the chicken to achieve the greatest benefit.