Turkey Diseases

You must know about the common turkey diseases and problems if you want to raise them. You will be able to take good care of your birds and will also be able to keep them healthy if you know more about the common turkey diseases and problems.

Turkeys are great bird for raising in your farm. They are also good as pets. But there are some diseases and problems in turkeys. They are like other poultry birds such as chickens and susceptible to diseases and other problems.

Whether you raise turkeys as pets, for meat or as a breeding flock, you should be aware of turkey diseases and problems for avoiding losses and heartbreak of losing your flock.

Turkey Diseases and Problems

Here we are describing about some turkey diseases and problems. Proper care and preventive methods will be helpful for preventing such turkey diseases and other health problems.

1. Airsacculitis

Airsacculitis is a respiratory disease and it affects the air sacs of turkeys. Actually you can't treat airsacculitis, but only prevent this disease. The main prevention for this disease is to ensuring purchase of poults from disease free hatchery that tests for the disease in their breeding hens and toms. The poults can get the disease before they are even born. Because the disease is transmitted in the eggs.

turkey diseases, diseases of turkeys, turkey diseases and problems

2. Blackhead

Blackhead is a common disease to chickens. It can also affect turkey birds even it causes no symptoms in chickens. So you should not raise turkey poults and baby chicks together.

And if you keep both chickens and turkeys, then ensure separate house for each birds. Never raise turkeys and chickens or any other poultry birds in the same house. And while selecting turkey house it will be better if you place it in such a location where chickens have not been before.

If you can't keep your turkeys separate from chickens, then you can purchase some drugs and feed your turkeys for preventing blackhead.

3. Cannibalism

Cannibalism is actually not a disease. It is a problem in the turkey flock and common in most other poultry birds. You can stop cannibalism by giving your birds enough living and range space.

Usually 75 by 75 feet space will be sufficient enough for every 20 turkeys on range. Also ensure proper ventilation system inside their house. Because overheating can also cause cannibalism.

4. Coccidiosis

Coccidiosis is a common disease in turkeys that can cause diarrhea and lack of "thrift" or good growth in poults. You can use medicated feed containing drugs for preventing this disease. Always try to keep the litter dry and it is very important.

Because coccidiosis spreads and grows in dirty and wet litter. Letting your poults outside onto pasture by their eight weeks of age and moving roosts to fresh ground inside the house frequently will help to prevent this disease.

You can also vaccinate your chicks against coccidiosis. In case of applying vaccination, you should not feed your birds with medicated feeds. Because feeding medicated feeds after applying vaccines will inactive the vaccine's activity.

5. Predators

There are some animals and birds around which can harm your turkeys. For keeping your birds happy and safe, you must prevent predators. Always try to provide roosts for your birds.

This will not only keep them happy, but also keep them safe from predators who will have to climb to reach your birds (in the wild, turkeys roost very safely very high in trees).

The higher you can make the roosts, the safer your turkeys will feel. Make fence around your turkey pen, and this will prevent some deter predators. It will be better if you can cover the top of the fence with netting.

Comments

Murray Grey Cattle

The Murray Grey cattle are a breed of beef cattle from Australia. It was developed in the upper Murray River valley on the New South Wales. The breed was developed in 1905 from an initial chance mating of a black Aberdeen Angus bull and a roan Shorthorn cow during the Federation drought. From these matings the resulting thirteen dun-grey calves were kept as curiosities. And then Peter and Ena Sutherland bred them on the Thologolong property along the Murray River in New South Wales. Murray Grey cattle grew faster and were good converters of feed and produced quality carcases. These are the reasons this animals become very popular after their development. And local farmers became interested soon in these animals and began breeding them. The first large scale commercial farms were established in the 1940s. Today the breed is available in many countries. Both live Murray Grey cattle and embryos have been exported to many countries such as Canada, South America, New Ze...

Sorting Cattle

Sorting cattle is important if you have a large number of animals. For better management you will need to separate the animals into different groups depending on their age, size, gender or condition score. If some cattle of your herd need to be examined by a veterinarian or confined due to injury or illness, then separation may also need to be done. Sorting is also needed for separating the calves that need to be weaned from their mothers. And separating the bulls is also necessary after they have done their duty with breeding cows. Sorting Cattle Sorting cattle is not actually a difficult task. It can be done easily if you understand stockmanship principles that take advantage of bovine psychology and behavior. However, here we are describing more about the ways of sorting cattle. Sorting From a Squeeze Chute In this system you can move your cattle through a working corral into a chute system into the squeeze. In this system you can check and process animals f...

Andalusian Black Cattle Farming

Andalusian Black cattle farming is not too popular, even in it's native area. It is a relatively rare breed which is valued for meat production. But today, the breed is listed as 'endangered', and total number of the breed is very less. The Andalusian Black cattle is a taurine cattle breed, and it was originated in west Andalusia, Spain. It is also known by some other names such as Negra de las Campiñas, Negra Campiñesa and Spanish: Negra Andaluza. The Andalusian Black cattle is actually a beef cattle breed which is raised primarily for meat production purpose. The breed is found in two main areas of west Andalusia (from Cordova to the foothills of the Sierra Morena), and in the provinces of Seville, Cádiz and Huelva. Today, total population of the Andalusian Black cattle breed is very less. And there were about 800 purebred cattle in the year of 2007. Total number of this breed decreased mainly for crossbreeding with other local cattle breeds. Other reason...

Belted Galloway Cattle Farming

Belted Galloway cattle farming is popular, especially in it's native area. It is a beef cattle breed and raised mainly for meat production purpose. The breed is also known by some other names such as Beltie, Oreo Cow and Panda Cow. The Belted Galloway cattle breed was originated from Galloway in the west side of Southern Scotland. It is a heritage breed, and is well adapted to living on the poor upland pastures and wildswept moorlands of the region. Exact origins of the breed are unclear. But it is often surmised that the white belt of the breed may be a result of cross breeding with the Dutch Lakenvelder belted cattle. And the breed is named so mainly because of the belt. An association for the breed named the Belted Galloway Association was formed in 1921 in Scotland. And the name of the association was changed to Belted Galloway Society in the year of 1951. The association keeps and records pedigrees for Belted Galloways and oversees the registration of White and Re...

Cleaning A Cow

Cleaning a cow in the proper way can keep the animal look and feel fresh. Cleaning also help to prevent external parasites. You may also need to clean your cow to show it off at your local county fair or other occasions. And you need to clean your cows more often especially if you have dairy cows. You can integrate a spraying system for cleaning a cow once a day or so. Along with cleaning the body, you should also provide a footbath for better health of the cow's hooves. However, here we are describing more about the process of cleaning a cow. Sprinkler System Add Sprinkler in a Pre-milking Wash Pen You can construct a pre-milking wash pen with sprinklers for cleaning multiple cows. In this system, install sprinklers all along the pen you hold the cows in before milking. Using concrete for the floor will be good. It will help to keep the floor dry quickly and you will not have a constantly muddy area. You should spray sprinklers both up and down to wash the cows th...

Agerolese Cattle Farming

Agerolese cattle farming is not common, even in it's native area. It is a dairy cattle breed which is raised mainly for milk production purpose in it's native area. It is a pretty rare breed and not available outside it's native area. The Agerolese cattle is actually from the area of Agerola, in Campania in southern Italy. It was developed from cross-breeding of indigenous Podolica cattle with Bruna Italiana, Italian Holstein-Friesian and Jersey cattle. The breed is particularly associated with the Sorrento Peninsula and Monti Lattari. The Agerolese cattle is one of the 16 minor Italian cattle breeds of limited diffusion recognized and protected by the Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali, the Italian ministry of agriculture. There were a total of 200 animals available according to a census completed on 1 January 2002. And the conservation status of the Agerolese cattle breed was reported by the FAO as 'endangered-maintained' in 200...

Ankole-Watusi Cattle Farming

Ankole-Watusi cattle farming is pretty popular, especially in it's native area. It is a multi-purpose breed of domestic cattle which is raised and valued for show, draught, meat and milk production purpose. The Ankole-Watusi cattle is a landrace breed, a type of Sanga cattle and originally native to East Africa. It is also known as Ankole Longhorn, and also sometimes known simply as Ankole or Watusi. Ankole-Watusi cattle is actually an ancient breed, and ancient rock paintings and depictions of these animals have been observed in the Sahara region and in the Egyptian arts and pyramid walls. The Sanga breed has spread to the Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and some other parts of Eastern Africa, becoming the base stock of the indigenous African cattle populations. It has most of the usual Zebu characteristics such as the pendulous dewlap and sheath, hump of variable size and the upturned horns. The Ankole-Watusi cattle have played a very important role in the lives of various ...

Search This Blog