The greatest issue that chicken owners might have to fight against are definitely diseases that can spread among chickens. The diseases can lead to various problems such as egg and meat reduction or in the worst case scenario, they could cause death of your chickens. For this reason it is very important to protect your chickens and prevent grave and serious consequences.
OBSERVE CHICKEN BEHAVIOR
First of all, it is essential for every chicken owner to constantly monitor its chickens and pay attention to every change of behaviour. If the owner gets to know the typical behaviour of its chickens, it will be easier for him or her to spot any deviation. If the disease occurs, the symptoms are usualy easily recognizable. The ill chicken would usually move around less, it would pull in its neck toward the body or similar. However, some diseases could manifest in different ways because of various factors and organisms.
When it comes to infections, these types of diseases could be transmitted to chickens without even noticing it. They could be introduced unintentionally, spreading them from shoes, clothing, tools, other animals and similar, to your chickens.
KEEP THE COOP CLEAN
To prevent this from happening, the owner has to keep the chickens’ environment clean and regularly checked and observed. Also, the mingling of your chickens with the new ones can be dangerous, because the new chickens could be the carriers of some disease which would easily spread among others.
The best way to keep your chickens safe is to minimize their contact not only with other birds, but with people as well. If some of your chickens gets an infection, it should immediately be isolated from the rest of the flock. Also, make sure you keep your chickens regularly vaccinated as it will reduce the possibility of them getting infections and diseases.
