Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Health
Open Access

Study on Causes of Morbidity and Mortality in Selected Poultry Farms in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia

Moges Maru Alemayehu^*

Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, University of Gonda, Gondar, Ethiopia

Citation: Alemayehu MM (2021) Study on Causes of Morbidity and Mortality in Selected Poultry Farms in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, J Vet Med Health, Vol.5 Iss.2 No:129.

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Copyright: © 2021 Alemayehu MM. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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The patterns and causes of mortality and morbidity in poultry farms in Lohmann brown and ISA-Brown of layers breeds and Cobb500 breed of broiler chickens were studied in six commercial poultry farms at Debre Zeit from day-old to 10wks (broiler) and 15wks (layers) of age of birds from December 2013 to April 2014. The study was accomplished by a weekly visit of farms and by a questionnaire survey by which general health and risk factor assessments were collected. Diseases and disorders were diagnosed based on the disease history, clinical signs and characteristics necropsy lesions. From the average total population of 57442 birds, the morbidity and mortality of chickens caused by different diseases and disorders were 4526 (7.88%) and 3808 (6.63%) respectively. In meat type chicken in three of the farms with average population of 21947 birds the overall morbidity and mortality rates were 1407 (6.41%) and 1202 (5.48%) respectively and in egg type chicken with an average total population of 35495 birds the morbidity and mortality were 3072 (8.66%) and 2605 (7.34%) respectively. Based on disease history, clinical signs and postmortem lesions the causes of mortality in the farms were Newcastle disease (3.18%), overcrowding (2.21%), infectious bronchitis (0.50%), stress (0.41%), coccidiosis (0.39%), pullorum disease (0.21%), infectious bursal disease (0.14%), fowl pox (0.12%) and cannibalism (0.01) were diagnosed in egg type birds and stress (1.99%), pullorum disease (1.19%), overcrowding (0.46%), Newcastle disease (0.43%), Ascites (0.29%), colibacillosis (0.06%) and coccidiosis (0.02%).The breed wise analysis on the overall mortality in chickens showed significantly highest (p<0.05) mortality in Lohmann brown (10.19%) followed by cobb500 (5.48%) and ISA brown (2.91%) breeds of chicken. The age-wise analysis on the overall mortality in egg type chickens showed significantly (p < 0.05) highest mortality in grower (13.56%) followed by brooding, (11.37%), and lowest in pullets (3.84%). And in that of meat type chicken the age wise analysis showed significantly (P<0.05) higher mortality in 1-5 weeks of age of birds (14.46%) than 6-8 and/or 10 weeks of age of birds (1.75%). The present study clearly indicates that birds kept under intensive management system were exposed to a wide range of diseases that mainly due to management failure of the farms. Therefore, the farm owners were advised to alleviate the problems and to maintain good management of the farm.

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