May 12, 2004
Nebraska's Poultry Owners Can Join New Disease Monitoring Program
LINCOLN, Neb. — A new University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension poultry disease monitoring program should help poultry owners become more aware of diseases that can affect their flocks.
The program will help monitor poultry diseases statewide. Poultry owners who join the effort will receive free mailings, educational materials, testing, diagnostic work and necropsies for their birds, said Dan McGuire, poultry extension assistant.
"Poultry owners will be able to learn what diseases, if any, they have on their farms and get help monitoring diseases," McGuire said. "If we know which diseases are in our state, we can better advise people on what measures they can take to protect their flock."
The program is available to all Nebraska poultry owners, McGuire said. To sign up or for more information, contact McGuire at C206b Animal Science Complex, P.O. Box 830908, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb. 68583-0908; call (402) 472-5625 or e-mail dmcguire4@unl.edu.
Some of Nebraska's most common poultry diseases include coccidiosis, Newcastle disease, infectious bronchitis, fowl pox, Mareck's disease and larynogotracheitis.
This program was prompted by biosecurity concerns, especially after exotic Newcastle disease spread across California and four other states two years ago, he said. A grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security funds the program.
Nebraska's commercial poultry operations raise about 12 million layers, 3.5 million broilers and 3 million turkeys annually. There also are farmers who raise thousands of pheasants and quail across Nebraska for hunters and people who raise a few poultry in their backyard, McGuire said.
Poultry that are kept for more than two years are of special significance because as a bird ages it becomes more susceptible to disease and also more apt to be a carrier of a disease it has survived, he said.
"Often it is a mild symptom that affects production, such as inadequate weight gain, number of eggs laid and/or the hatchability of the egg," he said. "If there is no death loss the poultry owner may not take any action, but the flock may now be a carrier of the disease. If new birds are brought into the flock, the older birds can pass the disease on to the new birds."
5/12/04-SA
Dan McGuire
Animal Science
Poultry Extension Assistant
(402) 472-5625
Sandi Alswager Karstens IANR News and Photography (402) 472-3030
Department: Animal Science
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