Alert thresholds: mortality, water, feed, weight, and when to make the call
"Let's wait until tomorrow and see." That sentence has cost more flocks in Côte d'Ivoire than all the diseases put together. Waiting means letting a virus do two more days of multiplication, letting a coccidiosis go from 20 to 200 affected birds. A technician does not wait "to see": he compares today's figure with a threshold written in advance, and the threshold decides for him. This lesson sets numerical thresholds on mortality, water, feed and weight, explains how they are observed, and says who calls whom, and when.
13 min read · 5-question quiz at the end
By Abdul Hussein ChoumanFounder of NEXTEKCI · Agnibilékrou hatchery since 2006This lesson is part of Level 9 — Advanced health: understand, prevent, monitor. It opens to registered students who have passed the level 8 exam. Levels 1 to 5 and the tracks remain readable by everyone.
- ✓Calculate daily and cumulative mortality and compare them with written thresholds
- ✓Read water and feed consumption as early signals, with the water/feed ratio
- ✓Use the weekly weighing and the laying rate as alert thresholds
- ✓Organise the chain of decision: who observes, who decides, who calls the vet, within how long