Page 224 - Agriculture_Form_Three

Agriculture for Secondary Schools

Management of health
In order to maintain good health of the chicken and attain optimal growth and
weight, some preventive and curative measures against parasites, diseases and vices
are necessary. Follow the recommended vaccination schedule below.

Table 9.4: Recommended vaccination schedule for broiler
Age of birds Disease to be vaccinated
Day 3 - 7 Newcastle

Day 14 Gumboro
Day 21 Newcastle

Observe and note any signs of disease and provide treatment at any time as deemed
necessary and/or as advised by your veterinarian. Deworming may be done if the
birds are to be kept longer than the normal 5 - 8 weeks recommended. Avoid visitors
to stop bringing/spreading bacterial and other disease causing agents from outside
into your flock. While working at the farm, you are expected to have and to use
farm working gears like gumboots, overalls, and dust capes to ensure maximum
biosecurity.

Marketing of broiler and/or broiler meat
Broilers from your farm can be sold alive or processed to meat and sold as fresh
meat. In the last days of rearing the meat birds, the digestive system has to be emptied

by withdrawing the feeders. This is done to reduce the risk of faecal contamination
during processing and making the meat tender. The feed is removed from the flock
8 - 12 hours before the expected time of slaughter but water should be available all
the time.

Catching should be done with an extra care to avoid injury and the process should
be monitored. Birds for meat need to be held in a comfort zone to minimise stresses.
Before slaughtering, the primary method of stunning birds prior to slaughter is called
electrical stunning. It is the predominant method of making birds unconscious in
order to reduce pain during slaughtering. Slaughtering procedures were covered in
the previous chapter of handling and processing of livestock products.

Record keeping
Like in the layers production unit, record keeping is important to evaluate your
enterprise. Records on mortality, feed consumption, disease prophylaxis and

treatment, sales and purchases must be kept on daily basis.

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