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Is Bird Flu the Biggest Disease Threat?

Alan Beynon BVM&S MRCVS

As a game bird practice we are experiencing a high volume of calls relating to all possible scenarios as to ‘what will happen if.’  The answers are always negative and there are few solutions to limiting the wild pheasant and partridge population from seeding infection from migratory birds.

There is much mileage in considering factors such as biosecurity controls. For example, reducing spilt feed, limiting movement of birds, assessing the risk of ponds etc.

However, the common diseases that we can control such as worm infestation, hexamita and mycoplasma are rarely covered in such detail. Actually, the wild bird population will move home in the next few weeks and the Bird Flu risk will diminish until next winter but the likelihood of having a preventable and costly disease that we can control is taking second place.

The proactive shoots and game farms are already planning a strategy for prevention and this is beside the backdrop of a Government scheme to reduce antibiotic usage in the food producing industry. The Government has advocated a level of less than 50 mg of medicine for 1kg of meat produced. Many practices are now measuring usage and we are assessing how this can be reduced to comply.

There are many success stories, and with a detailed plan and some proactive advice (and some luck) we have achieved a number of large shoots to get to a point of using no medication. The results with respect to the birds flying ability was marked and a very exciting outcome for the project.

The lessons learnt have been very informative as well, with some associations made very clear. One that I was interested in was that stocking density in a pen does not always have a direct association with disease as management factors became more important. With good management the birds in a pen can be made disease free by reducing stress.

Careful attention to detail from the supply of day olds through to the final product will have a great influence on your shoot day and there are a number of things we can change as we have control.

Over the next few months I will discuss specific aspects of what you can do to help improve the performance of your shoot through attention to detail. The next article will focus on choosing your chicks for optimum performance.