Poultry Farm Management | Biology for Grade 12 PDF Download

Poultry 

- Poultry is the word used for the birds which can be bred for economic purposes.

- It includes ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowls, pea fowls, pigeons, gualis, partsidges etc. for their meat & eggs.
Poultry Farm

- Poultry and poultry products are a rich source of animal protein & right kind of fats for good health.

- In our country poultry mainly means domestication of chickens for meat & eggs.

- India stands at 6th place in poultry farming in the world.

- In India per capita consumption annually is only 19 eggs and 20 gm of meat.

- While the nutritional advisory committee of ICMR (Indian council for medical research) has recommended an egg/day i.e. 300 eggs/ annum/person & 180 gm meat/day/person

Poultry Farming

1. Poultry birds are easy to raise & can acclimatise to a wide range of climate condition.

2. They are prolific (highly reproductive and have short life span)

3. Their products are rich source of money Indian breeds lay 60 eggs/year in comparision to exotic breeds lay 270 eggs/yr.

4. Poultry farming is advantageous over other enterprises.

- It yields quick return needs little space & easy to manage

- Chickens are bred in large colonies in special places, called poultry farms

- The poultry birds are kept in dry comfortable & well ventilated cages.

- Separate rooms or compartments are made for birds of different age groups.

- The floor housing is more common.

- The floor is covered with husk & straws

- The farm is rat proof with proper drainage system

* The feed of poultry birds consists of cereals, milletes oil cakes, fish & meat meal, minerals & green vegetables, fish silage, protein concentrate

Hen 

- Starts laying eggs at the age of 6 months

- Then number of eggs produced during winter are more compare than summer.(temp. effect)

Majority of the hens start laying eggs from the month of February and continue this practice till August. Monsoon period is considered to be the  most of suitable time for obtaining chicken from eggs.

• The domestic fowl (gallus gallus) can be classified as -

(1) Indigenous (Desi) or Indian breeds

Aseel, Ghagus, Karnataka, Brahma, Bursa, Black Bengal, Chittagong, Tellicherry etc.
Aseel is best game bird, it is used in cock fighting.

- Poultry birds exclusively grown for meat is called broilers (plymoth rocks).

• Indian breeds are slow growing, less efficient converters and produce fewer eggs (60/years)

(2) Exotic Breeds

- White leghorn,  Rhode island red, Plymoth rock, New Hampshire, Sussex, Australorp, Minorca etc.

- HH260 lays more than 260 eggs in a year & its mortality rate is low.

- The broilers (bird grown for meat), with high nutritive value have been produced by cross breeding (heterosis)

 * DUCK (Anas)

- Ducks are abundant in southern & eastern parts of India.

- It has about 20 breeds.

- Common Indian breeds are Indian runner, Syhlet meta, Nageshwari - The exotic breeds include campbell, Pekin, Muscori & Ayleshbury

• Geese (Anser) - Two common varieties are brown & white

• Turkey (Maleagris) -It is a recently domasticated bird.

- The important breeds are British white, broad breasted bronze, Beltsiville small white Narfold.

Common Diseases of Poultry

Some of the commonly occurring disease of poultry are as follows

(i) Viral Diseases of Poultry

Fowlpox, infectious bronchitis, lymphoid leukosis and ranikhet diseases are common viral diseases of poultry.

– Ranikhet (New castle) disease is the most common disease of hens and fowls in which the affected individuals suffer from fever and diarrhoea. With the progression of this disease the birds show mucus secretion from their beaks, paralysis of wings and the birds repeatedly moving round.

(ii) Bacterial Diseases - Fowl cholera, Pullorum, Coryza, Mycoplasmosis and Spirochaetosis.

(iii) Fungal Diseases - Aflatoxicosis, Brooder pneumonia and aspergillosis.

(iv) Parasitic diseases :

i. Internal Parasites :- Round worms, tapeworms & threadworms

ii. External parasites : Fowlmite, chicken, mite, fleas, ticks etc.
If any of the infectious disease has affected a mass proportion of the chicken & hens, then the best and safer decision, to avoid the fatal consequence, is to destroy the affected individuals. A poultry keeper must be awarded about the common diseases so as to ensure the well being of hens and also of man.