Common Errors in Poultry Farm Vaccinations
Vaccination is intended to prevent disease from poultry, but not when the wrong way is handled. In this post, I’m going to share some of the reasons why vaccinations will kill your chickens before illness comes. First, though, it is important that I share an insight into what a vaccine is. Vaccines are living, destroyed or attenuated (weakened) form of a disease-causing organism (pathogen) that is administered to animals in order to sensitize them and prepare them in their active form for the naturally occurring pathogen.
Having decided what a vaccine is and why it is being administered, let’s get into the common mistakes that farmers make when vaccinating their chickens.
Learn More
Vaccinating Sick or Stressed Chickens
To vaccinate infected birds is like to add to the disease. When a chicken gets sick, it will weaken the immune system. In times like this, vaccination will only do more harm – rather than avoid the disease. It happens when a diseased bird is vaccinated because the weakened organism injected into the chicken’s body can now trigger the disease. Stressed poultry have also reduced lymphocyte levels. In the event you don’t know, lymphocyte is called an antibodies manufacturer. And the antibodies play an important role in the immune response of your chickens.
READ ALSO: The Importance of Monitoring Chicks Water Usage
Using Vaccines as Drugs
This is illustrated in poultry farming when a farmer decides to repeat a vaccine without adequate guidance. In most cases, we have the idea that administering the vaccine will increase their chances of efficacy. Some even add doses by exercise on vaccination. Okay, there are situations in which vaccines should be repeated but at appropriate intervals only. This should be in accordance with the supplier’s contract, and not just because you think you need to add an additional dose. Most farmers often use vaccines to mitigate the effects of viral diseases that all need to be monitored.
Poor Vaccine Administration
This involves the management issues which may break an exercise in vaccination. For example, if proper monitoring is not done and some birds do not have access to the vaccine, this could lead to a serious future outbreak. Unvaccinated birds in such cases pose a challenge to the vaccinated ones and to the farmer’s benefit.
READ ALSO: Management of Ectoparasites in Cage-free Housing Systems
Poor Storage of Vaccines
Generally speaking, poultry vaccines are stored in a cold chain, i.e. they must be kept in cold storage from the point of production to the point of use. Consequently, inadequate storage can make these vaccinations useless and no vaccination has taken place, even if administered. As a poultry farmer, it is critical that you add importance to the vaccine source used. Just buy vaccines from reputable locations that are trusted to have maintained all the requirements to keep the vaccines strong.
Freezer breakdown, personal carelessness or transportation problems may also cause bad storage. The bad thing about vaccine shortages is they often go unnoticed. That is, the farmer claims that all the chickens were vaccinated before symptoms of the disease that they were vaccinated for began to emerge. By taking this extra precaution secure your investment.
Use of Poor Quality Water
As we ought already to say, most vaccines use water as the diluent. Use water which has a high content of salt or chlorine can impotence vaccines. It ensures the quality of the water needed to preserve the vaccine. You’ll find out more about vaccines and water conservation Poultry ERP.
This needs to be done more carefully, because the chickens need to be healthy and disease-free. I hope this article will point you in the right direction with respect to vaccination and the possibility that you might not. Contact us for more information on that.
-Advertisement-
We do everything possible to supply quality information for farmers day in, day out and we are committed to keep doing this.
Your kind donation will help our continuous research efforts.
