Protecting Poultry Profits (1952)

[Music] [Applause] la poultry business is big business with an annual income of over $3 billion from the sale of poultry and poultry products and represents more than 14% of the total National farm income derived from animal products not so long ago chickens lived on a few handfuls of grain table scraps and whatever else they could scratch from the ground today commercial mixed feeds are scientifically compounded completely mixed uniform palatable and nutritive promoting maximum performance and profess through improved growth and production and saving time and labor required in mixing feeds on the farm and breeders Supply the excellent stock which has brought our chickens to their present High state of development we've learned that we can't take out of a bird what has not been bred and fed into it but between the initial start with fine stock and growth through scientific feeding to the final delivery of a marketable bird at a good price profit stands the most important single element in the successful poultry business management good management means wise management backed by a vast amount of information available to the poultrymen of today there are certain Essentials which good management provides it is considered good practice to allow one square foot per bird to avoid overcrowding the birds should have easy access to good feed in ERS protected from contamination and clean water readily available on raised screen platforms to keep the floor and litter dry opinions vary greatly regarding proper ventilation but all authorities agree that dryness is absolutely essential a damp house can cause the bird's discomfort which might result in sickness for dryness and good ventilation are closely related while fresh air should be constantly supplied in sufficient amounts drafts must be avoided this is especially true in winter when birds are kept confined week after week the right litter is also highly controversial but there are a few practices which are generally accepted as sound the Bureau of animal industry of the United States Department of Agriculture suggests using a deep highly absorbent litter and adds that this meth method saves much labor and time and does not increase disease hazards there is one point however which is not controversial in fact there is nothing more important in poultry production than starting clean and keeping clean this applies to birds as well as to houses equipment and to the ground on which the birds May forage the maintenance of good health marks the difference between profit and loss in in the poultry business consider the loss to the poultry grower of a single bird first there is the original cost of the chick next the cost of the feed the chick is consumed then there's the labor involved in feeding and caring for that bird add to this the average profit from the sale of a marketable bird and we arrive at the Grower's loss per chick so it becomes obvious that the most important job the poultry grower has is the maintenance of the health of his flock one of the most costly poultry diseases until recently was Cox cidos which was so prevalent that growers in the past had come to accept a loss of 10 to 20 Birds per 100 and the stunting of 8 to 10 more as a normal cost of doing business while coidis can occur at any age the greatest danger of infection is in birds from 4 to 8 weeks old intestinal Cox cidos may occur during this period or later it is generally accepted that all young birds reared on litter are exposed to this costly disease coidis is caused by a microscopic parasite in a tiny egg-like cell which is protected by a very tough covering this cell known as an oasy is passed in the droppings in this stage it is non-infective but after about two days of moisture and warmth significant changes begin to take place in the non-infective oasy four spores develop each with two banana-shaped sporozoites so that each Oasis when matured contains eight sporozoites the oosy is now known as an infective oosy when it is swallowed by a chick The infective Oasis passes down the warm moist intestinal tract where digestive juices of the bird dissolve the hard protective covering of the Oasis the spores break through the weakened wall of the Oasis and then the sporozoites escape from the spores these released organisms invade the cells lining the seea or other parts of the intestine depending on the species of parasite once inside the cell wall the sporozoite develops into a rounded body enclosing a nucleus this nucleus splits into two nuclei these in turn split and the process repeats until when growth stops a considerable number of nuclei have developed then around each nucleus a new organism called a meizo forms fitting with the others into a clump resembling the sections of an orange these test chicks injected with 25,000 o assists which is probably a great many more than they would normally pick up in the field show very little change in appearance and appetite up to this time in the development of the parasite about 3 days have elapsed the intestines and seea of this third day chick look about normal although small hemorrhages May sometimes be seen on the third day through the micro scope however we see the rounded bodies formed in the cells by the invading sporozoites and here in this cell is a further stage of the process showing the orang likee cluster of merozoites before they break out to infect more cells when these marizo ites are liberated they attack new cells where the parasites go through the same cycle as before to form a second generation of meizo now when this greatly increased number of organisms breaks through the cells on about the fourth day there is a good deal of tissue destruction which causes bleeding the test chick on the fourth day has become listless and begins to show the typical ruffling of the feathers and failing appetite during this stage the birds May begin to die from loss of blood the Breakthrough of the merozoites from the cells caused the Seeker to to fill with blood and to swell considerably the greatest number of deaths occur on the fifth day and blood begins to appear in the droppings notice how the loss of blood has drained the normally Rich red color of the comb the reason for the bloody droppings may be seen here the seea are a little more swollen and have started to Hemorrhage this second generation of organisms is invades many more cells this time however in the case of Cal coidis the cycle completes itself in the formation of new oocysts which will later be passed in the droppings to be picked up by other chicks and thus start a new destructive cycle some of the birds still die on the sixth day but those that survive the attack are immune and begin to improve the blood in the sea starts clotting which in turn causes shrinking the color of the walls of the sea begin to return to normal the microscope reveals great numbers of oasy on this sixth day when we realize that one parent cell is capable of producing over half a million oasy it's not difficult to understand how an entire flock may be infected by one single diseased bird late on this sixth day these o assists begin to pass in the droppings under Farm conditions the birds pick up the infective oos cysts from such places as the litter yards dirty feeders and waterers to spread the disease the appearance of bloody droppings in the litter and the infected seea are The Telltale symptoms of Cal coidis intestinal coidis on the other hand is less easily recognized because other poultry diseases produce similar symptoms there are many different species of coxidia which may produce intestinal coidis to save precious time and prevent serious losses get a competent poultry pathologist who with the aid of a microscope can give a quick and accurate diagnosis don't guess or put too much Reliance on your neighbor's guess it may cost you most of your profit the birds in the advanced stages of the disease seem to starve to death because of the destruction of the intestine where absorption occurs even with most careful management it is almost impossible to completely rid the Brer House of all oos cysts when cleaning and disinfecting because all oocysts responsible for coidis are exceptionally resistant to most of the common disinfectants just a few surviving par parites May infect an entire flock many years of research in the laboratory and on practical poultry Farms were required to develop sulfaquinoxaline commonly known as SQ to the point where it could be produced economically so that poltry men could use Simple practical lowcost methods for the prevention and control of outbreaks of coidis here is a practical demonstration of the effectiveness of of this drug in preventing an outbreak of coidis two units of 100 Birds each were given identical feed and care except that the protected Birds received a preventive level of sulfaquinoxaline premixed with its feed note that on this fourth day after inoculation with cidos the unprotected Birds show little change in appetite on the fifth day however the multiplication of parasites in the cells causes bleeding to start note the bloody droppings in the unprotected group some birds have begun to droop and show the typical ruffling of the feathers some Combs are beginning to turn pale and here is the first dead bird and another and another while the bird's on suoc quinox are active with appetites as Keen as ever there are one or two birds that appear listless bleeding continues through the sixth day it's on the fifth and sixth days when most of the deaths occur some of the droopy birds will be stunted the birds that survive the attack will develop an immunity as proven when tests are made with large doses of oosy at a later date and here's the score at the end of the test based on conser ative estimates cost for feed and care were identical for both flocks the only added cost was $12 for sulfaquinoxaline preventive medication which is sufficient SQ to raise 100 Birds to full Market weight and here's what resulted from that1 12 investment death score only 1% dead in the SQ protected flock as against 11% dead in the unprotected flock in dollar and cents this adds up to a loss of 30 cents per dead bird which covers 15 cents for the original cost of the chick plus another 15 cents for normal marketing profit if the bird had survived stunting score only 1% stunted in the SQ protected flock as against 10% stunted in the unprotected flock the additional feed cost of bringing the stunted Birds up to full Market weight is estimated at 6 cents per chick remember this extra profit of $242 is for 100 Birds only in an average Broiler plant raising 10,000 Birds the extra profit would be $242 moreover SQ protected Birds weigh more on less feed and have Superior Market finish hundreds of commercial Broiler flocks and millions of birds have been thus protected with no severe outbreaks of Cal or intestinal coidis sulfaquinoxaline protected these Birds by permitting a mild infection to develop so the birds May acquire an immunity this prevents the damaging effects of uncontrolled coidis sulfaquinoxaline has proved to be relatively non-toxic experiments have shown that many times the recommended preventive level has been used without harmful effect with such a large margin of safety there is little danger of overdosing it has been successfully used the year round under a wide variety of climatic conditions the grower who Waits until Cox cidos strikes loses in two ways first in deaths and second in stunted Birds even if a breakthrough does occur due to overcrowding and poor sanitation the cushioning effect of the preventive medication will keep the deaths and stunting loss to a very small percentage compared to birds not fed the preventive medication when an outbreak of coidis occurs in an unprotected flock quick action is essential for the disease May spread rapidly between the time of infection and the recognition of the symptoms the first objective is to control the deaths little can be done for severely affected Birds but for the rest of the flock the best results can be obtained by using sulfaquinoxaline as early as possible but why wait until the fifth day when the infection will have had a 4-day start SQ preventive medication works for you night and day many outbreaks can be satisfactorily controlled by following the 23232 schedule this consists of giving Sulu quinox at the higher levels recommended for the control of outbreaks for 3 2-day periods with no treatment during the two intervening periods of 3 days each as soon as the disease is recognized sulfaquinoxaline should be given as directed on the tag or on the label this 23232 schedule is not just a group of numbers pulled out of a hat this program has been scientifically developed to break up the cycle of reproduction of the parasite during these 12 days the birds in many flocks will have developed a satisfactory immunity a bird which has developed an immunity to one type of coxos may not be safe from future attack by another type since seal and intestinal coidis are caused by different species of coxidia to permit adequate exposure and reduce the need for medication to a minimum do not change the litter during an outbreak unless absolutely necessary this infected litter is important in developing immunity stir the litter if it has a tendency to cake if water is spilled from the drinking fountain replace the wet litter the experience of a large poultry grower with preventive medication in commercial Broiler production showed no severe outbreaks of of seal or intestinal coxii ois his record in handling 160 flocks since 1946 is the equivalent of 53 years of successful experience with preventive medication sulfaquinoxaline is the product recommended for prevention as well as the control of all the major economically important types of coidis imia tanella NRI a culina Maxima brunetti it is also an effective agent for reducing mortality of acute foul chalera as effective as sulfaquinoxaline is it cannot replace good management sulfaquinoxaline should act as an aid to management if flocks are overcrowded if the litter is allowed to get wet if ventilation is poor Cox cidos may break through the preventive guard of sulfaquinoxaline in that case the SQ is not at fault you need a stronger guard immediately in other words you need a higher level of SQ as recommended in the sulfaquinoxaline control program while sulfaquinoxaline has all but eliminated the number one source of loss in poultry raising it should not be considered a cure all there are many complicating diseases which are not controlled by sulfaquinoxaline or any other coxidia stat and there are other poultry diseases which have symptoms similar to Cox cidos and can cause loss of appetite and a reduction of food intake under these conditions the birds getting sulfaquinoxaline in their feed will not be getting the proper concentration for adequate protection from coxos in such cases the concentration in the feed should be increased or the sulfaquinoxaline should be administered in the drinking water since sick Birds May drink even when they refuse feed the occasional appearance of a bloody dropping in a suoc oyin protected flock should be no cause for alarm since this indicates that the birds are building an immunity because it is important to mix the proper concentrations of sulfaquinoxaline in the feed uniformly and scientifically the distribution of the drug to poultry Growers has been limited to commercial feed manufacturers and Veterinary pharmaceutical manufacturers feed manufacturers for example have the equipment and the knowhow developed through years of experience in blending vitamins such as riboflavin in large amounts of feed they are able to mix minute amounts of a drug uniformly with a ton of feed through a series of progressively larger Blends and they can check the thoroughness of the final results with tests required by government regulation the poultry grower can be sure of the proper concentrations as and when needed either in the form of feed mixtures or as premixes which should always be used as the manufacturer directs for use in drinking water sulfaquinoxaline may be obtained from your feed or remedy dealer in Solutions soluble powders and tablets poultry profits originate with good stock good feed wise management management whose motto is start clean keep clean and these profits can be protected with sulfaquinoxaline the product recommended for prevention as well as control of coidis in both chickens and turkeys coidis deaths have been limited to less than 2% as compared with a previous loss of 10 to 20% broilers weigh more on less feed than untreated Birds the flocks maintain greater uniformity and better better Market quality the drug has no adverse effect on egg production fertility or hatchability there has been no severe outbreak of seal or intestinal coidis in the raising of hundreds of millions of birds by some of the largest growers in the country it is effective the year round under a wide variety of climatic conditions and it protects the birds while they build immunity the development of sulfaquinoxaline is an important milestone in the Merk research and production program devoted not only to more effective disease prevention but also to continuing Improvement of the nutrition of [Music] poultry