Zambia Agribusiness Society

Sudden death syndrome (SDS) is also known as flip-over disease. Birds show no outward signs of disease but suddenly extend their necks, gasp, or squawk. They flap their wings, typically resulting in the birds flipping over on their backs (hence the name flip-over disease). The majority of the birds affected are males, especially those of the larger breeds. The incidence in a rapidly growing, healthy broiler flock is typically 1% to 4%. With reduced growth rates, the incidence of SDS is considerably lower. The cause of SDS is not clear, but it is believed to be a metabolic disease related to high carbohydrate intake. SDS can occur as early as three days of age and may continue until birds reach market weight. Peak mortality generally occurs when birds are between 12 and 28 days of age. This is due to their unnaturally fast growth rate coupled with their excessively large body mass, relative to the size of their organs---specifically their respiratory system and heart. Heart failure

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