St David’s Game Bird Services have formed a partnership with NADIS (National Animal Disease Information Service) and Elanco Animal Health to develop a veterinary based health resource for game keepers/farmers and their staff. The gamebird section on the NADIS website will be an essential disease reference covering all the major diseases that affect game birds (www.nadis.org.uk).
The resource, consisting of 5 modules, will cover the main production stages of game birds. Each module will consist of a series of bulletins dealing with the major diseases affecting that production stage:
- Diseases of laying game birds
- Diseases of the Hatchery
- Diseases of the rearing field
- Diseases of the release pen
- Diseases of the shoot
Our game bird vets will be writing these bulletins over the next 12 months. Each bulletin will be a practical guide which highlights the early clinical disease signs to watch out for, as well as promoting disease prevention and control through veterinary health planning, and thus improving the health of your shoot. The bulletins will be in a highly visual format illustrating the signs to watch out for with practical and concise content.
The game bird resource will highlight the current disease situation developed from information across our practice bases and act as a timely reminder of the diseases to watch out for in the coming three month period.
Mike Howe, Veterinary Director of NADIS says, “The key to healthy birds is disease prevention. The NADIS game bird bulletins will increase the awareness of gamekeepers and their staff to the causes of disease and the early signs to watch out for, along with disease prevention management. We are very fortunate to be working with St David’s Game Bird Services, one of the UK’s leading veterinary game bird consultancies to develop the game bird health resource.”