General Care and Feeding Management tools for Poultry forming during Extreme Weathers with Special references to Summer and Winter Season

General Care and Feeding Management tools for Poultry forming during Extreme Weathers with Special references to Summer and Winter Season

Dr. Sanjay Kumar Bharti¹, Dr. Jai Kishan Prasad²,

¹Head, Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Dean²

Bihar Veterinary College, Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna- 800014

Basic General Management points are requiring for poultry farming.

1. No discarded egg trays should be allowed to be brought to the farm. Second – hand equipment purchased from other poultry farm must be strictly prohibited.
2. Outsiders should not be allowed to enter the poultry house because they act as source of disease. Even the attendants of one poultry house should not be allowed to enter other poultry house of the same farm. Under unavoidable circumstances, the visitors must be provided with sterile clothes and disinfected shoes and then only they should enter the poultry house.
3. Vaccination programme must be carried out strictly in time. Personal care should be taken to see that every bird is vaccinated.
4. Purchase vaccines from extremely reliable sources, use them religiously as per the instructions and always examine the expiry date.
5. Avoid use of dirty gunny bags as they may act as reservoir of disease producing organisms and fungi.
6. Entry of vehicle which has visited other farms must be strictly prohibited. If necessary, they should pass through disinfectant bath
7. Deep pits and, if possible, incinerators should be used for disposal of carcases. Dead birds must be immediately buried of burnt because if it keeps on lying in the pen other birds may try to eat it and flies may spread the infection to feed, water,
8. No garbage should be thrown in the farm premises.
9. Good quality feed should be made available to the birds.
10. Diseased birds must be immediately segregated and thorough examination of the cause of disease and subsequent preventive measures for protection of other birds are essential.
11. If possible, the dead birds should be subjected to post-mortem and laboratory examination by a reliable poultry pathologist at least at some intervals of a week or a month, to know the type of diseases prevailing on the farm so that preventive measures may be taken before they attain alarming proportion. This will also give confidence to the poultry farmer about the health status of his flock.
12. The birds may be got insured through a genuine insurance company to safeguard against losses, beyond human control.
13. Disinfection programme of Biosecurity:

Key Words: – Poultry, Feeding, Vaccination, Management, Disinfectant, Weathers, Temperature, Energy, Summer and Winter

The following biosecurity must be practised:

• All in-all out system: This system is strongly recommended for maximum extraction of genetic potential of birds. All bird in the shed should be of the same age, same strain and source of supply. All layers are culled after finishing the cycle (50 weeks). House must to completely depopulated, disinfected and given rest before starting next batch.
• Cleaning and disinfection:
• Depopulation: Remove all dead or living birds from the farm premises.
• Destroy all rodents and wild birds in the sheds.
• Remove manure, litter manure, litter feathers, dust, clean the fans, wirentes and water tanks.
• Floors should be soaked with saturated washing soda for 24 hours and then the water is to be brained out. Rewash the floor with the following:
• 1 to 20% phenol
• Cresol or Lysil (5%)
• Chlorinated disinfectant solution having 10 to 20 chorine in the form of bleeching powder or sodium hypochloride, containing 20% available chlorine
• Disinfect with any of the broad spectrum disinfectants (which kills bacteria, viruses, fungi, coccidian and parasitic eggs). This should be done as per manufacturer’s guideline.
• Fumigation: Fumigation may be done with formalin and potassium permanganate.
• Walls treatment: Walls may be whitewashed with lime containing 0.5% copper sulphate or spray walls with disinfectant containing glutaraldehyde, benzalkonium and formaldehyde, polymethyl urea derivaties,
• The feed store must be at least 200 feet away. The trucks must not be allowed to come near the sheds.

FEEDING DURING EXTREME WEATHERS

The chicken is a homoeothermic, i.e. it can maintain a relatively constant body temperature, provided the environmental temperature is not outside a certain range. It is obvious that birds kept at low temperature will require more dietary energy to maintain body temperature than the ones kept at high temperature. The ideal temperature range for poultry is between 13⁰ and 30⁰ C. birds do not eat to meet their energy needs when the temperature is above 30⁰ C and, on the other end of the scale, below 13⁰ C, birds over-consume an energy. Both extremes can result in increased cost for poultry meat and egg. In a country as large as India, with varying climates (temperature/humidity), the feed consumption varies considerably which affects the nutrient intake.

HOT WEATHER

As temperature rises the food intake declines at an ever increasing rate. The rate of decline might be 1.5 per cent per 1⁰ C rise when temperature changes from 20⁰ –30⁰C, whereas the fall may be 4-5 per cent per 1⁰ C rise in temperature in the range of 30⁰ C to 38⁰ C. At higher temperature, birds need a lesser amount of energy, though the requirement of nutrients other than energy remains fairly constant. In order to maintain a constant level of consumption, on hot weather, it is necessary to increase the level of these nutrients as a percentage of the anticipated daily feed intake.
At temperature above 30⁰ C, the birds pant, trying to dissipate heat by increasing evaporative loss. In panting they use effort, so they take additional dietary energy to offset it. But more energy produces more heat, with the result that they eat less, or stop eating. Part of the heat, which the birds must dissipate comes from their digestion and metabolism of food-the ‘heat increment’. This varies depending on the nature of the feed. Fats have a lower heat increment than carbohydrates, which in turn, have a lower heat increment than protein.

It follows that good ‘hot weather’ diets are those where a greater proportion of the energy comes from fat, and where the protein content is minimized. There is now evidence to show that dietary amino acid needs are met, whilst at the same time avoiding large dietary excesses of amino acids over their requirement. Another way of reducing excessive levels of amino acids and thereby getting more efficient use of protein is to use mixed proteins.

There have been reports that there is a higher requirement of vitamin A in hot climates. Precise work with chickens has failed to demonstrate increased requirement. Possibly because of the reduction in feed intake at high temperatures intake of vitamin A (and of other vitamins) will be less. Furthermore, in the case of a labile substance such as vitamin A, loss of activity upon storage will be faster at elevated temperature. Higher temperature may also interfere with optimum synthesis of vitamin C. Studies have shown that the thyroid function which is being impaired by high temperature can be restored to normalcy by providing vitamin C to the birds. Ascorbic acid or vitamin C supplementation of laying ration under high environmental temperature improves both egg shell quality and production.

COLD WEATHER

As temperature drops, the birds need more calories of energy to maintain their body temperature. The birds will consume more feed to compensate for the heat loss from the body, resulting in poor feed efficiency. When birds consume more feed the protein and other nutrient intake will be more. The protein and other nutrients when used for energy production they become a waste. To avoid this wastage the ratio should be altered in such-rich sources like oil, fat etc. Alternatively the protein and other nutrient content of the ration can be reduced keeping the energy at same level.
Some reports on effect of seasons on requirements of nutrients, particularly protein and energy, for different classes of poultry such as starting chicks, broilers and layers are available under our agroclimatic conditions. For broilers, it has been reported that optimum body weight are obtained in summer at a protein level of 23 per cent with calorie-protein ratio of 122 to 135. The energy requirement worked out to be 3.100 Kcal ME/kg diet. A higher level of energy required was still found to be 23 per cent. On the other hand, a protein level of 26 per cent was found to be optimum in the monsoon season but the energy requirement remains still at 3,100 Kcal ME/kg. A similar trend was noticed in the feed efficiency ratios as well. Optimum growth of White Leghorn chicks requires 22 per cent crude protein with 2,700 Kcal ME/kg in summer, while in winter they required higher energy level (3,000Kcal). The requirement of energy for maintenance in summer and winter months was 144 and 204 Kcal per bird per day weighing about 1 kg body weight. Experiments with White Leghorn layers have shown a protein level of 18.5 per cent as the requirement in summer months for layers. This resulted in 16.1 g protein intake/hen/day. The protein requirement in winter months was found to be 15 per cent resulting in17.0 g protein intake/bird/day.

These studies clearly indicate that the efficiency of a ration formulation is greatly influenced by environmental temperature and humidity. Whether this is due to real differences in energy and nitrogen requirements from one season to another or due to an indirect effect upon feed consumption is yet to be examined. Obviously, the most promising method of overcoming the environmental effects on the performance of poultry is, changing the ration to suit the changing climatic conditions to which the birds are exposed.

CARE AND MANAGEMENT DURING SUMMER SEASON

The following poultry forming management points are required during summer season.

During summer months of May, June and July the environmental temperature reaches its peak, rendering the birds susceptible to heat stress and deaths. Following points must be kept in mind during summer season.

1. The poultry house should be so constructed that it provides cross-ventilation. Exhaust fan and if possible ceiling fans are of great use during summer season. Foggers available commercially can be used for cooling.
2. Provision of shade will help to maintain coolness in the poultry house. Sprinkling of water on the roof top, 2 to 3 times a day, will help to increase the production level. Plantation of trees around poultry houses also helps in reducing heat and provides fresh air.
3. Cool water must be provided to the newly arrived chicks. This helps to avoid dehydration and stress. Addition of medicines like dextrose and electrolytes may help to maintain the ionic balance of the body in extreme summer heat.
4. Waterers must be provided in adequate number along with fresh supply of clean water at regular intervals.
5. Use of antistress drugs in the feed or water.
6. Increased supplementation of minerals by 20-30 per cent since feed consumption is lowered during summer.
7. Provision of higher rate of animal protein should be made.
8. Vaccine break is a common problem during summer. To avoid this, transport of vaccine must be carried out as per the specifications of the manufacture. It must be stored and handled properly. Vaccination should be carried out during cool hours of the day, e., early morning. Post-vaccinal care should be carried out as per the description in the literature.
9. Colibacillosis has often been found associated with heat stress. Therefore, sanitary measures must be taken to prevent contamination.
10. Addition of vitamin C in the diet drastically reduces mortality due to heat stress.
11. Vitamin supplement must be increased by 20-40 per cent depending upon the heat.
12. Low energy and high nutrient diet must be supplied. Wet mash feeding is preferable during summer but left-over wet mash may get spoiled by bacterial growth and may be harmful to bird.

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