{"id":4563,"date":"2020-01-08T13:13:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T13:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/?p=4563"},"modified":"2020-01-08T13:13:50","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T13:13:50","slug":"beware-of-blackhead-disease-in-your-poultry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/beware-of-blackhead-disease-in-your-poultry\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of Blackhead Disease in your Poultry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blackhead Disease (histomoniasis) is an important poultry disease that affects turkeys, chickens,\u00a0and game birds such as partridges, pheasants, and quail. The disease is caused by the protozoa\u00a0<em>Histomonas meleagridis<\/em>,\u00a0tiny, single-celled organisms that are spread\u00a0to the bird by the roundworm.<\/p>\n<p>The lifecycle of the protozoa\u00a0<em>H. meleagridis\u00a0<\/em>is complex. The protozoa multiply in an infected bird\u2019s cecum, a part of its digestive tract.\u00a0They\u00a0move to the bird\u2019s intestines where the roundworm<em>\u00a0<\/em>lives. The roundworm eats the protozoa, the\u00a0roundworm\u2019s eggs\u00a0become infected with\u00a0the protozoa and the bird sheds the protozoal-infected roundworm eggs\u00a0in\u00a0its droppings.<\/p>\n<p>Healthy birds become infected when they eat food, invertebrates (such as earthworms), or bird droppings that are contaminated with the protozoa. Direct bird-to-bird transmission can also occur within a flock. Because poultry\u00a0commonly have the roundworm in their intestines, they often are the source of the protozoal infection for other birds.<\/p>\n<p>Birds with blackhead disease are usually listless and have drooping wings, unkempt feathers, and yellow droppings. Typically, the cecum and liver of an infected bird will become inflamed and develop ulcers. Young birds become sick quickly and usually die within a few days after signs appear. The disease develops more slowly in older birds and they often become emaciated and may eventually die.<\/p>\n<p>Turkeys are highly susceptible to blackhead disease. Once a turkey flock has been infected, 70 to 100% of the birds may die.\u00a0Blackhead disease is less severe in chickens but can lead to poor health and reduced egg production.<\/p>\n<p>Historically Dimetridazole was used for prophylaxis or treatment in turkeys but it has been withdrawn from use.\u00a0However, there have been good results shown using essential oils and herbal products with extracts from cinnamon, garlic, lemon, and rosemary as an\u00a0effective preventive or curative treatment. Consult your veterinarian for further advice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Management\u00a0 practices<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ensure paddocks are regularly rotated, particularly if turkeys are also kept on the same premises.<\/p>\n<p>Turkeys should not be kept on the same paddocks as chickens. If this is not possible, turkeys should\u00a0<strong>never<\/strong>\u00a0follow chickens<\/p>\n<p>Paddocks and ranges should be well-drained and in a sunny location<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blackhead Disease (histomoniasis) is an important poultry disease that affects turkeys, chickens,\u00a0and game birds such [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poultry-diseases","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}