Metabolic and nutritional diseases: ascites, sudden death, deficiencies, mycotoxicoses (recognising them)
Not all diseases come from a microbe. A broiler that dies on its back at 25 days, a flock with swollen bellies, chicks walking on their hocks, a flock refusing a bag of feed: nothing contagious, and yet losses. These diseases come from the bird itself, from the feed or from the environment. They are prevented by husbandry, not by the vet alone. This lesson teaches you to recognise them and to tell them apart from an infectious disease, so that you do not look for a microbe where there is none.
13 min read · 5-question quiz at the end
By Abdul Hussein ChoumanFounder of NEXTEKCI · Agnibilékrou hatchery since 2006Lesson reserved for students following the steps
This 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.
What you will learn
- ✓Tell a non-infectious disease from a contagious one based on what is observed in the flock
- ✓Recognise ascites and the sudden death syndrome of broilers and their husbandry causes
- ✓Recognise the signs of the main vitamin and mineral deficiencies
- ✓Recognise a mycotoxicosis and apply the feed storage rules