Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
clean out your facility between batches of chicks.
Yes, if you wait until the disease occurs before medicating the flock, you will lose a
couple of chickens. But a mild case of coccidiosis at a young age results in a bird that's
stronger and more resistant to reinfection later in life. I've never had to deal with cocci-
diosis in my adult birds. I believe this is because they have always been exposed to it as
juveniles and have developed resistance to a later infection.
Coryza
The disease coryza, or as it used to be called, roup, is common among chickens and, in
a related form, turkeys. I have never seen or heard of it infecting waterfowl or guineas,
though there is published evidence that indicates it can occur in guinea fowl as well. The
causative agent is a bacterium.
Symptoms
Coryza is often slow to develop. The disease usually attacks one eye of the bird and pro-
duces a cheesy, foul-smelling mass of puslike exudate in the eye of the bird, eventually
blinding it. The infection spreads from the eye to the sinuses and the bird becomes slow
and lethargic and develops at a slower rate than is typical. The disease works slowly
through the flock and tends to occur in chickens older than twelve weeks. Eventually,
most of your birds are exposed and the coryza runs its course through all of them. Some
get it, some don't. In some birds, the infection will be minor and the eye is saved; other
birds die from complications.
An eye oozing a smelly pus indicates coryza.
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