Poultry Improvement Project
Overview of Diseases, Nutritional
Diseases, Bacterial Diseases, and
Protozoan Diseases
Definition of Disease
• Disease is any departure from health-a
particular destructive process in the body,
with a specific cause and characteristic
symptoms; any disturbance in the proper
functioning of vital processes or systems of
an animal.
Pullorum
• Causes and Symptoms
• Caused by a bacteria Salmonella pullorum
• Symptoms are being sleepy, “Huddled up”, pasty
diarrhea and smeared vent, inactive with a high
mortality in young birds.
• On postmortem there would be lesions on lungs,
brick red looking liver and inflammation of heart
sac.
Pullorum
• Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
• Diagnosis through blood test.
• Treatment with sulfonamides, nitrofurans, and
antibiotics.
• Prevention of Pullorum is to buy from tested,
disease free stock (hatcheries).
Nutritional Disease
• Nutritional diseases are the result of a
deficiency.
– Examples include:
• Vitamin K deficiency: prolonged blood-clotting
time, chick hemorrhagic syndrome.
• The disease can be corrected by adding the vitamin
to the diet.
• Most complete feeds are balanced for vitamins etc.
Fowl Cholera
• Causes and Symptoms
• Caused by the bacteria Pasteurella multocida.
• Symptoms include stupor, loss of appetite, rapid
weight loss, lameness, swollen wattles, watery
yellowish diarrhea, dull blue or purple color of head
and wattle.
Fowl Cholera
• Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment
• Diagnosis-bipolar staining rods in blood smear.
• Prevention-use bacterin or live vaccine for
vaccination.
• Treatment-sulfaquinoxaline, antibiotics, etc.
Coccidiosis
• Causes, Symptoms, Control, and Prevention
• Caused by a protozoan in the dirty litter.
• Symptoms include bloody diarrhea and ulceration of
the intestinal lining.
• Control by keeping litter dry.
• In boiler production a coccidiostat is fed in the feed
from day old to slaughter.
» Monensin sodium, and amprol plus are examples.
» Vaccinations may also be given.