A Guide to Healthy Poultry Production

Abstract

Poultry plays an important role in poverty alleviation, nutrition and food security. Poultry are one of farm animals that can be raised under different husbandry conditions which ranging from scavenging to closed system. The scavenging system which is the major production system in the country is composed of chicken of different age and sex in the same environment. These birds are allowed to scavenge for available field resources in their area freely. Based on the level of biosecurity poultry production system can be categorized in to four sectors. Sector one is known of its high biosecurity level and use of sophisticated technology while in sector two the biosecurity measures can be moderate to high. The above two are commercial in characteristics. Sector three is those commercial production systems with low to minimal biosecurity measures implementation and products from this sector may enter live bird markets. The last sector is village/ backyard production which comprises more than 95% Ethiopian poultry production system. This production system is characterized by minimum to no biosecurity measures, poor housing, poor management and poor availability of veterinary service in the areas. A low emphasis was also given to the sector due to loss occurred during periodic occurrence of an outbreak and poor productivity of the chickens. Poor biosecurity measures and improper management can be source of loss in poultry production system. The loss can be due to direct loss of the bird or due to poor productivity of improperly managed chicken. Health and productivity of chickens can be improved by good feeding, implementation of biosecurity measures and good management.