A Poultry expert, Mr Shittu Asimi, on Tuesday counselled farmers to prevent outbreak and spread of diseases on their farms by taking necessary precautionary measures.

Asimi, who is a member of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

He assured that preventing the outbreak of diseases among poultry farmers was quite easy, saying that it did not cost half as much as was needed to procure feeds for the birds.

“There are so many measures a farmer can take to prevent poultry disease outbreak. For example, the site of your farmhouse matters a lot; there is a direction the poultry farm must face.

“As long as there is free ventilation in the poultry farm; that is the first step in preventing spread of any poultry disease among the birds.

“To prevent frequent diseases among poultry birds, the first thing the farmer must do is to ensure the environment of his farm is clean.

“He must also ensure that the poultry is well-ventilated among other precautionary measures he needs to put in place,’’ the expert said.

Asimi said that it was necessary that the birds are administered the right medication and vaccines as soon as they arrive on the farm to forestall disease outbreak.

He advised that the farmer must ensure he placed the birds on a daily antibiotic dosage as well as provide the necessary vitamins as soon as they arrive on his farm.

“The birds must most necessarily be administered the antibiotic dosage within the first five days of arriving at the farm.

“The birds must also be vaccinated four times within the first four weeks of arriving on the poultry to prevent disease outbreak.

“There are isolated cases of some poultry farmers contacting skin diseases from rearing or maintaining poultry farms but it is not a common occurrence.

“I have been in the poultry business for more than 30 years and in all my years of experience, none of my workers or myself has ever contacted diseases by catering for the birds,’’ Asimi said.

He urged farmhands to clean up properly and maintain other proper hygienic measures, saying that this was necessary for any kind of manual labour.

“Even in farmers’ gathering we have not had a record of our members complaining of contacting diseases via the poultry farm,’’ Asimi said. (NAN)

– Feb. 26, 2019 @ 12:35 GMT |