Mortality has always been an indicator of performance. It is quite obvious that with a very high mortality, all factors, like FCR, BW and age, are affected. It is therefore very important to keep mortalities low so that performance will be higher. Below are my observations and recommendations on how to keep mortalities low and controlled.
1. CLEAN UP!
Proper cleaning is often a neglected part of the operation. THis happens because our growers often times want to increase their profit per year by loading their farms as fast and as often as possible. Cleaning if not done properly can adversely affect your performance because a lot of bacteria and viruses can live upto 3 months in a poorly cleaned environment. Also, a lot of disinfectants are inactivated in the presence of organic matter. In short, your disinfectant will not work! So clean up!
2. BROODING
I may sound like a broken record, but I still believe that good brooding will effectively prevent your birds from dying. Why? Because during this period, DOCs are not that strong enough to protect themselves from outside infection. Also, a lot of the bird's physiological function is developed during brooding, like the immune system and the digestive system. If not properly given the right temperature, sufficient ventilation and proper feed and water care, your birds will have a weaker immune defense and poor digestive/absorbing function during the 3rd and 4th week. That is why poorly brooded birds are more susceptible to respiratory diseases and almost always break down during stressful conditions, like after giving your ND vaccination at the 3rd week. As they say, your chicks are are your future!
3. ANTIBIOTIC TIMING
It has always been a practice among poultry farms to give antibiotics as a prevention during the 2nd or 3rd week. The problem is, we might be giving antibiotics during a time when the birds do not really need it! That is why most of the times we experience respiratory breakouts even after giving preventive antibiotics. Also, giving antibiotics regularly can cause resistance which is currently experienced here. To ensure that the giving of antibiotics is needed and timed properly, it is recommended to do necropsy to evaluate the condition of the birds. Doing necropsy can tell you a lot of what is happening inside the birds. Remember, that using antibiotics will cost you, and it will cost you a lot if not done and timed properly.
4. SELECTION
Proper selction of small and weak chicks can and should be done as early as the first week. We have to separate these challenged birds from the stronger ones because these are often times the first ones to gwet infected with disease. Also with proper selection, we significantly lower the probability of disease spread. Proper selection also goes hand in hand with culling. Culling of small birds or runts during the early stages is a good management practice, because we are already eliminating and reducing the risk of an infection coming into the farm. Early culling of runts also ensures that we have a better conversion efficiency because these birds though small can eat the same amount of food as a normal bird. So, select then cull is an important key.
5. MONITORING
If the above mentioned factors are done properly but poorly monitored, then we will still have problems with our mortality. Being able to monitor closely the farm will better prepare us for any eventual disease that we mioght experience. With proper monitoring, we can easily anticipate and properly prevent mortalities from happening iunexpectedly.
With the five factors mentioned above, it is safe to say that we will be able to control any mortalities that can happen in the future. Preparing our buildings, taking good care of our DOCs, knowing when to give antibiotics and montiroing these things will ensure that our birds will be protected and be strong enough to fend off any problems in the future.
Remember, your birds depend on you to survive and you depend on your birds to live!
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