05/01/2023
Poultry Infectious Coryza:
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT INFECTION CORYZA IN CHICKENS
Raising chickens is a rewarding, profitable, and exciting experience. While there are many positive attributes to having chickens in your backyard or farm, it doesn’t come without its share of issues. One of the most critical issues chicken farmers want to address is how to keep their flock healthy and prevent diseases.
Coryza in chickens is one disease of which you should be aware. Chickens with this infectious disease will have what appears to be an upper respiratory infection. The good news is that this acute respiratory disease of chickens can be treated, and most birds will recover. However, older birds or those with weaker immune systems may not be so lucky.
Infectious coryza is a fairly common infection of the respiratory tract in chickens. It’s sometimes called roup, catarrh, pip, or IC. It is caused by the bacterium avibacterium paragallinarum, once known as haemophilus paragallinarum. It appears as a severe cold but can affect your farm’s sustainability and egg profitability.
It affects chickens worldwide, Chickens of all ages can get coryza but become more susceptible with age. The incubation period (the time between exposure to when systems and signs show) is one to three days, with the disease lasting for two to three weeks.
Coryza in chickens is caused by bacteria that can be spread from bird to bird. Carrier birds with this bacteria spread the disease through direct contact with other birds, airborne droplets, and contaminated feed or drinking water. Transmission cannot occur via eggs, so if an infected bird lays an egg, it won’t have the disease. However, chickens with this disease will likely have decreased egg production.
How Can You Tell if a Chicken Has Coryza?
Some of the clinical signs that a chicken has coryza include:
Decreased activity
Foul-smelling nasal discharge
Sneezing
Facial swelling
Watery eyes
Diarrhea
In mild forms of the disease, it may be hard to spot the signs. The facial swelling may only be slight, and the chickens may not be as active as normal. However, as the disease progresses, one or both infraorbital sinuses will continue to swell, preventing the eyes from opening completely. In adult birds, especially males, the swelling may spread to the jaw and wattles and last for 10 to 14 days.
How Do You Treat Coryza in Chickens?
If bacterial cultures come back positive for coryza or you highly suspect your flock may have the disease, you must isolate the infected chickens. Some farming operations choose to move all the chickens of the same age out to isolation so that they can all be exposed to the pathogen and develop some resistance to it. In the meantime, the facilities are deep-cleaned and disinfected before new, healthy birds are introduced to the environment.
It would help if you immediately administered antibiotics, such as erythromycin and oxytetracycline, can help treat infectious coryza in chickens. Your veterinarian will be able to prescribe the right antibiotic for your birds. Once recovered, the chicken can still be a carrier and infect other birds in your flock.
If you spot coryza in chickens early enough, you may be able to get rid of the disease with antibiotics, as mentioned above. However, it’s best to begin the isolation and identification of the disease early to not spread it further on your farm. If you do not isolate and treat the disease in the chickens, it will continue spreading until your entire flock is infected.
The mortality rate is around 20% in most flocks. For older chickens, ones with compromised immunity, or ones with another type of infection, coryza can be deadly. It may be more humane to cull those chickens rather than let them suffer with coryza and eventually die. Additionally, other birds on your farm, such as ducks, quail, or pheasants, may not survive this disease or overcome it as quickly as chickens can.
Veterinary-somalia
