Poultry Your Way - Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems ...

MANAGEMENT
ALTERNATIVES
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Poultry Your Way
MANAGEMENT ALTERNATIVES
POULTRY BASICS
Some animal welfare advocates feel that industrial management practices, including confinement housing, beak
and toe trimming, and artificial lighting, are unacceptable (Robinson, 2004). Still others argue that allowing birds
outside exposes them to disease and parasites as well as predators. Welfare concerns are addressed independently
alongside each management alternative in the following sections. Health management basics are reviewed below.
Infectious disease comes from bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. Noninfectious disease is the result of
nutritional problems (either a deficiency or excess), chemical poisons, injury, or excessive stress. Gail Damerow,
author of The Chicken Health Handbook, explains that “diseases are introduced from reservoirs of infection,
defined as any source or site where a disease-causing organism survives or multiplies and from which it can be
transferred to a host.”
Damerow’s list of disease reservoirs include chickens and other domestic poultry, exotic and caged birds, wild
birds, wild animals (including rodents), livestock, household pets, humans, earthworms, snails, slugs, arthropods
(fleas, mites, ticks, lice, mosquitoes, sow bugs, crickets, and grasshoppers eaten by your birds), feed containing
fungi, stagnant water, litter, soil, dust, and poorly sanitized equipment such as incubators, crates, and brooders. In
addition, Damerow warns that environmental factors such as cold and heat can lead to frostbite on wattles and
combs, stress, and even cannibalism among chickens and turkeys (waterfowl are “completely clothed” meaning
that they do not have exposed wattles and combs) (Damerow, 1994).
Disease can be spread directly from hen to embryo or from one bird to another as well as indirectly by something
that can transport the disease (like the bottom of your boot). Poultry growers limit the introduction of disease
through what are called “biosecurity” measures. Biosecurity includes the use of:
• Disease resistant breeds
• Regular sanitation
• Housing to keep out wild animals
• Closed flocks
• Visitation limits
• Planned labor movements (caring for younger, more susceptible birds first before moving to older birds)
• Flock history records
Management alternatives, species, and flock size will, in part, determine which biosecurity practices you utilize.
Some management alternatives, for example, organic management, preclude the use of medicated feed and beak
trimming, and emphasize access to fresh air and sunshine to break up disease cycles. Moreover, species choice
dramatically affects the need to introduce biosecurity measures. Ducks and geese, for instance, are considered
much more disease resistant than chickens. In fact, waterfowl growers typically do not vaccinate or employ what
have become routine biosecurity practices on broiler and turkey farms. “Even when kept under less than ideal
conditions,” says Holderread, “small duck flocks are seldom bothered by sickness or parasites” (Holderread, 2001).
In addition to biosecurity measures, growers often promote flock health through the use of vaccines, medicated
feed, beak trimming, and healthy chicks. Poultry specialists recommend purchasing day-old chicks and pullets
from hatcheries that participate in the National Poultry Improvement Plan. These hatcheries blood test their
flocks to check for common diseases. For a list of hatcheries participating in the National Poultry Improvement
Plan, contact the USDA APHIS (see Resources under Hatcheries for contact information) (Mercia, 2001).
As you read through the management alternatives, think about what combination of biosecurity measures and
health promotion practices might work best for you.