Livestock and poultry diseases can be divided into infectious and non-infectious diseases. Infectious diseases pose the greatest threat.
There are three factors in the occurrence of infectious diseases: the source of infection, the route of transmission, and susceptible animals. Another way of putting it is the “three factors in pathogenesis”: whether the amount of pathogenic microorganisms in the breeding environment is high or low; whether there are many or few susceptible animals (What is the animals’ physical condition? Have they been exposed to stress? Are antibody levels, including residual antibodies and maternal antibodies, high or low?); and whether the virulence of the pathogenic microorganisms is strong or weak. These factors determine whether an epidemic disease will occur.
Healthy animal farming and biosecurity are a systematic undertaking. Simply put, it is one-sided to say that antibiotic-free farming is the same as healthy animal farming and food safety. Food safety is the result of standardized production, not something achieved through testing.
A more recent approach is to prioritize raising livestock and poultry, with raising taking precedence over prevention and prevention over treatment, and to use an integrated disease-control approach that combines raising and prevention. Livestock and poultry are economic animals, unlike people and pets. People can spend a lot of money on treatment, but with economic animals, the focus is on returns, so prevention should be the priority.
A good veterinarian is not one who cures diseases, but one who keeps livestock and poultry from getting sick!
Livestock farmers at the grassroots level often ask what medicine to use to treat a particular disease, but do not investigate whether the disease has occurred because factors such as the environment, stress, nutrition, or ingestion of toxic substances have impaired the animal’s normal bodily functions. This has led to the seven key measures for healthy livestock and poultry farming: disinfection and isolation, improved management, vaccination, rational medication, familiarity with the environment, purification of breeding stock, and high-quality feed.
How can these seven key measures be used to combat livestock and poultry diseases?
Magic Tool One: Disinfection and Isolation
Disinfection reduces the amount of pathogenic microorganisms in the rearing environment. The fewer, the better; ideally, there should be none.
Disinfection and isolation are major measures for building a production safety system for livestock and poultry farms. This involves identifying risk factors that threaten livestock and poultry production, controlling them through scientific and effective technical and management measures, and preventing and blocking the entry of pathogens. This is biosecurity, which includes external and internal biosecurity.
External biosecurity mainly aims to prevent pathogenic microorganisms from being carried into the farm, or to prevent pathogens inside chicken or pig farms from spreading outside. What are the carriers? People, goods, rodents, insects, water sources, feed, and so on.
Internal biosecurity is primarily about controlling the circulation and spread of pathogenic microorganisms within the premises among livestock and poultry.
The basic principles for effective internal biosecurity are: First, separate clean and dirty areas. This is the clean route, and this is the dirty route. If the area used to transport feed is also used to transport manure, cross-contamination will occur. Second, maintain one-way movement; do not move in the opposite direction. Third, manage areas separately. The premises are generally divided into livestock housing areas, living areas, brooding and rearing areas, and areas for environmental protection and hatching facilities, which must all be strictly managed separately. Fourth, restrict access to the premises. When facing a serious disease threat or during seasons with a high incidence of disease, strict access restrictions must be implemented. Fifth, ensure effective disinfection.
How can disinfection be effective? We emphasize effective disinfection, and its effectiveness must be monitored.
Biosecurity at chicken farms and breeder farms must be managed by zone. Based on biosecurity level, the zones are classified in descending order into three levels: red, yellow, and green. The red zone refers to areas outside the farm; the yellow zone refers to living and environmental protection areas; and the green zone is the production area. Zoning must be strictly managed.
The disinfection and cleaning center must have three zones: a red zone, a yellow zone, and a green zone. Only after undergoing very strict disinfection and isolation procedures can people enter the green zone, and key steps must also be inspected.
Disinfection and isolation are closely related. If an area is disinfected very thoroughly and then immediately recontaminated, the disinfection is less effective. This is therefore a long-term, rigorous task.
Magic Weapon Two: Strengthen Management
Management is a science. Managing people by controlling them can stifle them. Management requires various systems and rules. There must be systems for disinfection and for entering and leaving the warehouse; everything must be standardized and meet established standards. Work must follow procedures rather than be decided on a whim, and there must be a basis for decisions.
Managing people through systems and handling tasks according to procedures, with standardized, institutionalized, and systematic management, can improve efficiency. Therefore, management must be strengthened at all facilities, including feed mills, breeder farms, and breeding pig farms.
In production, water quality management and litter management are particularly important on poultry farms.
Water within 100 meters is surface water and contains large numbers of microorganisms (such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella); also check for heavy metals in the water (the chickens developed diarrhea after drinking it and were given a great deal of medication; testing found that nitrate levels exceeded the limit), so water quality management is very important.
If water lines are not cleaned regularly, a lot of scale can build up, along with residues from vitamins and medications (anhydrous lactose, glucose). This can easily clog the water pipes and also lead to biofilm formation.
Escherichia coli is also a typical opportunistic bacterium. It is ubiquitous and can easily persist in water and litter. Litter can also contain many harmful gases, especially when large amounts of ammonia accumulate. This is an important issue in late-stage broiler mortality, so management is essential.
Floor-raised chickens can have coccidiosis and a high presence of E. coli. Later on, they eat more and produce more manure. A shared industry understanding is that chickens raised in cages are better than floor-raised chickens.
Cage-rearing uses modern management systems for ventilation, environmental control, feed lines, water lines, and manure removal. Manure is scraped once or twice a day. Environmental protection is emphasized in the management of excreta and manure, as well as the safe disposal of manure and dead or diseased livestock and poultry.