Also called heart attack, sudden death syndrome, acute death
syndrome, flip-over disease, acute heart failure.
This disease/problem is common in commercial “broilers” because of
high rate of growth and extra metabolic rate.
Symptoms
No previous symptoms.
It’s a kind of situation where, you were just in the poultry
house a few moments ago and every bird was very much OK, just to be
surprised by unusual mortality after a few minutes....even when you had checked,
everything was OK!
We may term this as sudden death!
Sudden death syndrome can happen between day 3 up to when a bird
grows to selling time.
Reason of sudden death syndrome (heart attack) in broilers.
High-calorie feed we are giving to commercial broilers. Metabolic
rate of broiler bird become high and an electrolyte imbalance can lead to the
problem. In hot areas, where high temperature is too high and bird has to
breath with high rate also increase the metabolic rate and when bird’s body is
not able to control it, bird die. High stress on bird can lead to the acute
attack.
But when you try to open the bird, you may find the heart has some
bits of blood clots or the lungs may look swollen with a little fluid in them!
When sudden death syndrome is happening, the bird flips its wings
several times, stretches its neck, may run around and collapse, but still die
facing up.
How to prevent sudden
death syndrome
- Be sure good temperature must be maintained. Extra temperature over 70 degrees Fahrenheit can cause more mortality. Birds should have enough supply of oxygen, a situation where a farmer closes everywhere on the house thinking that he has cut off wind to create warmth during brooding should be avoided.
- Administer the right quantity of glucose supplements...too much glucose is not good for chicks. At least let glucose be given for the first day only! But prolonged supply of glucose to the birds can cause flip-over/ sudden death syndrome.
- High levels of carbohydrates in the feeds! There's this tendency by farmers to substitute bran with broken maize which is not good! Farmers should stop it...did you know that even the texture of feed can lead to flip overs? Farmers using pellets get this problem easily than those on mash or these small crumbles!
- Sudden death syndrome can also happen when there's a lot of growth stimulation, mainly by giving lots of additives, prolonged hours of light, too much feeds, a lot of maize.
Did you know?
The heart and other internal organs of a broiler fail to support the
over growing body, hence a "system failure" which leads to death!
This is a short explanation of sudden death syndrome.
Is it heart attack in humans?
Solution
- Slow down the growth rate of the birds by: reducing the light duration to 6 hours at night.
- Reduce the quantity of feed you give to the birds after 10 weeks.
- Use a well-balanced feed, reduce on the energy levels of feed.
- Improve ventilation, and do proper supplementation of broilers using approved guides and medications.
- Avoid panic and give more electrolytes.
Do you have any
questions or other forms of contributions, kindly use the comment section
below!!
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