Contents
When buying turkeys or adult poultry for breeding for sale, you will have to take into account the tendency of turkeys, especially turkeys, to diseases. There is even an opinion that turkey poults get sick and die from the slightest breath of the breeze, but adult birds are practically not susceptible to diseases. Because of this opinion, turkey owners often become confused, not understanding what adult turkeys in their backyard are sick with.
In fact, the picture is somewhat different. Diseases of turkeys are often common with diseases of chickens. For example, Newcastle disease and influenza (avian plague) affect both chickens and turkeys. Therefore, disease prevention measures are often the same. If the owner of the farmstead has a mixed livestock on the farm, then you need to follow it doubly. Birds can infect each other.
Common infectious diseases often affect not only birds, but also mammals.
Such diseases include: salmonellosis, smallpox, leptospirosis, pasteurellosis, colibacillosis.
A fairly long list of turkey diseases can be seen in the video of the turkey breeding seminar held in 2014.
Non-contagious diseases of turkeys occupy a very insignificant place in the general list, but they are often the main problem of keeping turkeys, since with some care and prevention, the infection can not be brought into the farm, and feeding the bird depends solely on the knowledge and beliefs of the owner.
Many owners feed turkeys with whole grains, as the most natural and natural food, in which “antibiotics are not added”, which, according to many, are added to the feed by the manufacturer.
The result of eating whole grains by a turkey can be the so-called hard goiter.
hard goiter in turkeys
This usually happens if the bird has been starving for a long time and after the hunger strike, it ate food too greedily. After feeding, the turkeys go to drink. The whole grain accumulated in the goiter from the water swells, inflates the goiter and clogs the esophagus. Lack of stones or shells for grinding grain can only affect the stomach. In this case, the root cause of hard goiter is a blockage of the intestine at the exit from the stomach.
When feeding turkeys with factory compound feed, this does not happen, since when water enters the compound feed, the latter immediately soaks into gruel, for the assimilation of which even pebbles are not needed. With a sufficient amount of water drunk by the turkey, the slurry turns out to be liquid.
Theoretically, a turkey crop can be opened surgically and the swollen grain removed. But this procedure should be carried out by a veterinarian, and therefore it is usually more profitable to slaughter turkeys than to treat.
Hard goiter symptoms
Apathy. Goiter when probing hard, tightly stuffed. Turkeys refuse to feed. There is wasting and a decrease in egg production in turkeys if the disease developed during the laying season. Due to the pressure of the goiter on the trachea, the breathing of turkeys is difficult, subsequently death from suffocation occurs.
Hard goiter treatment
When clogged, the turkey crops are opened and their contents are surgically removed. After that, vaseline oil is injected into the goiter of the bird, sunflower oil can be used. After massaging the goiter, the contents of the goiter are removed, in fact, squeezed out through the esophagus.
swollen goiter
External signs are almost the same as with hard goiter. Goiter unnaturally large, but soft to the touch.
It is believed that this can happen if a turkey drinks too much water in the heat. In fact, hardly, except that the whole day to starve him thirsty in the sun. If the birds have free access to water, then turkeys drink as much as they need and little by little. In addition, water can be absorbed into the tissues through the mucous membrane of the goiter.
In fact, this is catarrh of the goiter or inflammation of the goiter caused by poor-quality feed in the diet of the turkey. Goiter disease develops when turkeys are fed rotten animal feed, moldy grain, or if the bird has reached mineral fertilizers. A goiter can also become inflamed when a foreign object is swallowed by a turkey.
Just bread can be the cause of a large but soft goiter in a turkey, as bread can churn into a sticky mass that clogs the intestines and starts fermentation.
Symptoms of soft goiter
The state of the turkey is depressed, often the appetite is reduced or absent altogether. The goiter of the bird is soft, often filled with fermentation products of low-quality feed. When pressing on the goiter, you can feel a sour smell coming from the turkey’s beak.
Prevention and treatment of soft goiter
If the goiter is opened, the bird is given a solution of potassium permanganate instead of water on the first day. Antimicrobials and mucous decoctions are also used.
Rickets in turkeys
More often turkeys of heavy crosses get sick, as they require a significant amount of calcium and protein for growth. But turkey poults of egg breeds are also susceptible to this disease. Even if there is enough calcium in the diet of turkeys, it will not be absorbed without vitamin D₃. And with an excess of phosphorus, calcium will begin to be washed out of the bones of turkeys, which will lead to osteoporosis. The mere addition of vitamins to the diet of turkeys does little, since for the normal assimilation of this vitamin, animals also need movement. If the turkeys suddenly become lethargic, a long walk in the fresh air can help. It is only necessary to equip a shelter from the sun, where the turkeys can hide in case of need.
Adult turkeys are relatively inactive, but even they need at least 20 m² per head for normal offspring production. Turkey poults are even more mobile and die without movement. Which, by the way, explains the belief that turkey poults are very gentle creatures that die from drafts. Owners, breeding turkeys at home, keep poults in very cramped quarters.
Pecking and cannibalism in turkeys
The second consequence of too crowded keeping of turkeys and lack of physical activity of the bird is stress. Their visible signs are often self-pecking, fighting and cannibalism. It is believed that this is due to beriberi, lack of animal protein or minerals. In fact, both self-pecking and cannibalism, expressed in the slaughter of fellows, are an external manifestation of the stress experienced by turkeys.
Avitaminosis does not appear in self-pecking, these are the consequences of stress.
Avitaminosis in turkeys
With hypovitaminosis, the formation of the feather cover is disturbed, the eyes are often watery and the eyelids swell, a perversion of appetite may be observed. Egg pecking often occurs not with beriberi, but with a lack of calcium, protein or fodder sulfur in the diet of birds.
Theoretically, you can add animal feed to the diet of birds and see what happens. But when breeding heavy crosses of turkeys, it is better to use ready-made feeds intended for them, and not to improvise.
If you follow the method of growing turkeys developed by specialists, then most of the non-communicable diseases caused by an improperly formulated diet can be avoided.
The situation is worse with infectious diseases of turkeys. Many diseases in turkeys caused by viruses or microorganisms cannot be treated. The bird has to be slaughtered. However, some of these diseases can be introduced into the farm in hatching eggs.
It is precisely because the eggs themselves are often infected that there is a high mortality of chickens, turkeys, pheasants and other chickens in the first days after hatching.
What does a sick turkey look like?
Measures to prevent infectious diseases
Measures for the prevention of infectious diseases in turkeys are the same as the prevention of these diseases in other birds: buy turkey poults and eggs for incubation only from prosperous farms.
As with chickens, there is usually no cure for infectious diseases in turkeys, so it is easier to prevent the disease than to try to treat it at home.
In order to prevent the introduction of infection into the farm, in addition to strict quarantine measures and the purchase of material for breeding turkeys only from safe sellers, internal sanitary measures must be observed: regular disinfection of premises and equipment, regular change of bedding, regular prevention of helminthiases and coccidiosis.
Infectious diseases of turkeys with a description and photo
One of the rather unpleasant diseases that affect not only birds, but also mammals is smallpox, which has several types, currents and forms.
Smallpox
It is not a single virus that causes smallpox, but several different species and genera belonging to the same family. There are three independent varieties: cow pox, sheep pox and bird pox.
The group of viruses that cause smallpox in birds includes three types of pathogen that affect different families of birds: chicken pox, pigeon pox and canary pox.
Owners of turkeys are only interested in chicken pox, which also affects other representatives of the pheasant family.
Chicken pox symptoms
The incubation period for smallpox in birds can last from a week to 20 days. The disease manifests itself in birds in 4 forms: diphtheroid, skin, catarrhal and mixed.
Diphtheroid form of the disease. Rash on the mucous membranes of the respiratory system in the form of films, wheezing, open beak.
Skin form of the disease. Pimples on the head.
catarrhal form of the disease. Conjunctivitis, sinusitis, rhinitis.
Mixed form of the disease. Pocks on the scalp and diphtheroid films on the mucous membranes of the oral cavity.
Lethal outcomes in case of avian pox reach 60%.
When diagnosing avian pox, it is necessary to distinguish it from beriberi A, candidiasis, aspergillosis, turkey sinusitis, respiratory mycoplasmosis, the symptoms of which are very similar.
Unlike many specific bird diseases, smallpox can be cured.
How to treat avian pox
In birds, symptomatic treatment is carried out, cleaning and disinfecting pockmarks from a secondary infection. The diet of birds is enriched with vitamin A or carotene. Give an increased dose of vitamins. Antibiotics are added to poultry feed. For the prevention of turkeys, they are vaccinated with a dry embryovirus vaccine.
Respiratory mycoplasmosis
Also called turkey sinusitis and air sac disease. A chronic disease characterized by damage to the respiratory system, reduced productivity, sinusitis, loss of sensation and exhaustion.
Symptoms of RM
In turkeys, the incubation period of the disease lasts from a couple of days to two weeks. Turkey poults get sick at the age of 3 – 6 weeks, adult birds during oviposition. In the yolk of the egg, the virus persists throughout the incubation period; therefore, there is an increased mortality of embryos and poults in the first day after hatching.
In respiratory mycoplasmosis, three courses of the disease are distinguished: acute, chronic and mixed.
The acute course of the disease is more often observed in turkey poults. Symptoms of the acute course of the disease: the first stage – loss of appetite, sinusitis, tracheitis; the second stage – cough, shortness of breath, catarrhal rhinitis passes into the stage of serous-fibrous, some turkeys develop conjunctivitis, growth stops, adult birds appear emaciated and decrease in egg production. In the acute course of the disease, the percentage of deaths in turkeys reaches 25%.
In the chronic course of the disease, symptoms are rhinitis and emaciation. In birds, fluid accumulates in the throat, from which adult turkeys try to get rid of.
In turkeys, the eyeball protrudes and atrophies, the joints and tendon sheaths become inflamed, wheezing appears. In a chronic course, up to 8% of adult birds and up to 25% of turkeys die.
Treatment and prevention of the disease
There is no cure developed for respiratory mycoplasmosis. Broad-spectrum antibiotics are used according to the schemes indicated in the instructions. Antibiotics are used not for obviously sick turkeys, but for the entire group of birds at once.
Antibiotics are not used for sick birds, since sick turkeys are destroyed during an outbreak of the disease. A conditionally healthy bird is soldered with antibiotics and left to obtain meat and food eggs.
The premises and equipment are disinfected, bird droppings are calcined at a high temperature. Quarantine is removed from the farm only after all conditionally healthy birds have been slaughtered, and there has not been a single case of the disease among the broodstock of turkeys and poults grown up to 8 months.
Pulloroz
He is “white diarrhea”. It is believed that this is a disease of the young. In fact, there are two variants of the disease: “childish” and “adult”. Their signs differ beyond recognition of the disease, so people often believe that white diarrhea in turkeys and problems with the reproductive system of turkeys are different diseases and there is nothing in common between them.
In turkeys, pullorosis causes septicemia, colloquially “blood poisoning”, damage to the gastrointestinal tract and respiratory system. In an adult bird – inflammation of the ovaries, oviduct and yolk peritonitis.
Symptoms of the “children’s” version of pullorosis
Pullorosis in turkeys is divided into two types: congenital and postnatal. With congenital poults, they are hatched from already infected eggs, with postnatal infection they become infected when sick and healthy poults are raised together.
Congenital pullorosis. The incubation period is usually 3 to 5 days. Sometimes it can reach up to 10. The main symptoms:
- refusal to feed;
- weakness;
- lowered wings;
- ruffled feather;
- poor plumage;
- the yolk is not drawn into the abdominal cavity (in these cases, turkeys usually do not live longer than 1 day);
- litter white, liquid (white diarrhea);
- due to liquid droppings, the fluff around the cloaca is glued together with excrement.
In postnatal pullorosis, three courses of the disease are distinguished: acute, subacute and chronic. The incubation period for this form is 2-5 days after the hatching of the turkey poults from the eggs.
Symptoms of postnatal pullorosis in turkeys in the acute course of the disease:
- indigestion;
- weakness;
- breathing through an open beak, not nasal openings;
- white mucus instead of droppings;
- blockage of the cloacal opening glued with feces;
- turkey poults stand with their paws apart and their eyes closed.
Subacute and chronic course of the disease occurs in turkey poults 15-20 days of age:
- poor feathering;
- developmental delay;
- diarrhea;
- broilers have inflammation of the joints of the legs.
Mortality in subacute and chronic pullorosis in turkey poults is low.
Symptoms of “adult” pullorosis
In adult turkeys, pullorosis occurs in an asymptomatic form. Periodically there is a decrease in egg production, yolk peritonitis, inflammation of the ovaries and oviduct, intestinal disorders.
Treatment of the disease
Obviously sick turkeys are destroyed. Conditionally healthy birds are treated with antibacterial drugs, using them according to the scheme prescribed by the veterinarian or indicated in the annotation to the drug.
Prevention of pullorosis
Compliance with veterinary requirements for the incubation of eggs and the maintenance and feeding of turkeys. Ban on the export and sale of products from farms infected with pullorosis.
Possible problems that owners of broiler turkeys may face
Diseases of turkeys of heavy broiler crosses often consist in ordinary rickets, when the bones do not keep up with the rapidly growing muscle mass. If the owner wants to grow such turkeys up to 6 months, having received a turkey weighing about 10 kg, he will have to use industrial technologies for growing broiler turkeys using furazolidone, coccidiostats and feed for broiler turkeys with a growth stimulator.
The phrase “growth stimulant”, which frightens many, is actually a correctly selected formula of vitamins and minerals that a turkey needs for proper development, and not mythical steroids.
If the owner prefers to raise such crosses of broiler turkeys on his own feed, he will have to slaughter them at 2 months, since after this period a large percentage of turkeys will begin to “fall on their feet” due to an improperly balanced diet.
To avoid diseases of broiler cross turkeys, you will have to use developments for industrial poultry farms.
How to drink heavy cross-country turkeys can be seen in this video.
Infectious specific diseases of turkeys do not exist. Infectious diseases affect turkeys of all ages. But turkeys are more susceptible to infections and require special attention.