Recent Detections of Avian Influenza in Dairy Cows: What You Need to Know
On March 25, 2024, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was detected in diagnostic samples from two dairy cattle farms in Texas and two in Kansas. This significant finding was announced jointly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Notably, this marks the first instance of HPAI detection in dairy cattle and the second instance in ruminants. Previously, the virus had been identified in juvenile goats on a Minnesota farm. The complete press release from the USDA is here.
What is Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza?
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), commonly known as bird flu, is an infectious disease affecting poultry. Read more >>
Maryland Department of Agriculture Issues Order Restricting Movement of Dairy Cattle Into the State
Maryland Farmers Encouraged to Continue Biosecurity Practices
ANNAPOLIS, MD (April 10) The Maryland Department of Agriculture today issued an order restricting movement of dairy cattle into Maryland from states with confirmed outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in their herds.
Last week, USDA announced detections of HPAI in dairy cattle herds in several states including Texas, Kansas, Michigan, Idaho, Ohio, North Carolina and New Mexico following increased illness and lower milk production rates among herds. USDA National Veterinary Laboratory Services confirmed the strain is H5N1, which has been circulating in the wild bird population for the last several years and appears to have been introduced to these herds by wild birds. Read more >>
First Modification to Control Order Restricting Movement of Dairy Cattle into Delaware Due to the Unusual Dairy Cattle Morbidity Event
Strategies to Improve Paw Quality
By Jon Moyle, Poultry Specialist, University of Maryland Extension, Lancaster Farming (April 2024)
There has been more concern lately about paw quality (chicken feet), in commercial poultry production. Poor paw quality occurs when there are lesions and inflammation of the footpad, and can also be referred to as footpad dermatitis. Footpads are used as an indicator of bird well-being as they can give an indicator of housing environment and bird management. In addition to causing a welfare issue for the birds, poor footpad quality can also result in lower production rates as well as increased condemnation of the paws leading to lower value when sold.
Footpad dermatitis is most often associated with wet litter conditions which leads to higher ammonia levels in the poultry barn. This ammonia can be in a liquid form on the surface of the litter which can then begin to cause footpad issues as early as the first week after placement.
Strategies to preserve good footpad quality should focus on keeping the litter dry and in good condition. While paw quality can also be affected by diet formulation and disease challenges, these factors are usually out of the grower’s control. Therefore, growers will need to focus on those things that they can control. These strategies include: maintaining a good litter depth, proper ventilation, drinker management, properly managing the houses between flocks and using litter amendments correctly before chick placement.
Litter depth needs to be a minimum of 3 inches, however, 4-6 inches would be better. The litter needs to cover the floor uniformly as thin spots will cake over quickly and lead to higher rates of footpad problems.
Ventilation is one of the most important management strategies to reduce footpad dermatitis. Because approximately only 20% of the water consumed by the birds is retained in the birds, the remaining 80% of the water expelled by the birds needs to be ventilated out of the barns. Therefore, ventilation rates need to increase as water consumption increases as the birds grow. Another important ventilation strategy is to use circulation fans for keeping the air moving and break up the stratification of ammonia and improve its removal from the barn by the exhaust fans. Recent research from the University of Georgia and the University of Maryland have shown that using circulation fans can improve paw quality when compared to barns without circulation fans.
How litter is managed between flocks is another important part of maintaining good paw quality. It is important that you maintain some type of ventilation during down time. This does not mean leaving the end doors open, but running exhaust fans to keep the ammonia levels down and remove moisture. If you have attic vents, this is another great time to use them. By bringing the warmer air in from the attic, you can dry floors between flocks. Additionally, running circulation fans during down time moves air over the floor and helps to dry the floors as they work with the exhaust fans to remove the moisture.
Litter amendments can also help in reducing foot pad issues. Amendments lower the pH, keeping the nitrogen in the ammonium state rather than becoming ammonia. This helps to keep the levels of ammonia low in the barn improving the environmental wellbeing of the birds. Litter amendments need to be used at the proper time and rate in order to be effective. This will vary depending on the amendment used, so follow all manufactures’ recommendations.
In conclusion, improving paw quality and bird wellbeing, means paying attention to basic management practices and adjusting them as needed to keep the floor dry. As growers improve paw quality, other production parameters will improve as will helping them to increase their income.
Nutritional Considerations During the Summer Months
Jennifer Timmons, Associate Professor, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
The summer months and warmer temperatures are quickly approaching. Maintaining bird comfort during hot weather is probably on the forefront of growers’ minds especially as birds approach market age. From a management standpoint, growers are always inspecting fans, cool pads, drinkers, bird distribution, generators…this list could go on, to ensure bird comfort. However, understanding how birds maintain their body temperature when environmental temperatures rise will allow growers to be more effective managing their houses for better bird cooling.
Birds, like mammals, are warm blooded and must maintain a fairly constant internal temperature around their core or internal organs. When it comes to maintaining their body temperature, birds have an outer shell which includes their skin and feathers and the temperature of the shell can vary. The shell functions to protect the core from large losses or gains of heat. In hot weather, vasodilation occurs (widening of blood vessels to increase blood flow) which increases blood flow to the outer shell. This is to increase the transfer of heat from the core to the shell and then release the heat to the environment.
A bird rids itself of excess heat primarily in two ways: it loses heat to the air around it, and it loses heat through evaporation of water from its respiratory system. The birds’ ability to release excess heat to the environment becomes less effective when the environmental temperature increases. As the birds’ internal temperature rises, the birds will become heat stressed. High temperatures can cause a metabolic chain reaction than can result in reduced feed consumption, decreased weight gain, in some cases damage to organs and death.
When birds consume a meal, heat is generated during digestion which increases the birds’ body temperature. It has been reported that there are some feed ingredients such as fiber and protein that generate more heat during digestion than other ingredients. Research has suggested that feeding individual amino acids in place of feed protein (bound amino acids) may allow birds to digest protein easier, which may have a positive impact on lowering body temperature.
When blood flow is redirected to the skin for cooling purposes, this may cause decrease organ function. The ability of the intestinal tract to digest and absorb nutrients may be reduced and may also cause inflammation and organ damage in the long term. A Feed Strategy article published in July 2020, suggested that supplemental vitamin C, which is an antioxidant, may reduce some of the negative effects of organ function caused by heat stress.
Heat stress can also lead to a condition called “leaky gut”. The intestinal tract lining is made up of a layer of epithelial cells. These cells are bound together by complex protein structures called “tight junctions,” and they function to prevent pathogens and toxins from going through the intestinal lining into the blood. Heat stress can weaken these “tight junctions”. It has been reported that zinc may have the potential to offset this damage by strengthening the bonds of the cells that line the gut and it may also help reduce the inflammation that has occurred in the gut as a result of any pathogen.
These are just a few examples of how nutrition can be used to help reduce the effects of heat stress in broiler chickens. Researchers continue to evaluate different nutrients to determine if there are any benefits to protect against the negative health and performance aspects that can occur from exposure to high temperatures. Even if some nutrients are found to be beneficial, the benefit must outweigh the cost of adding the nutrient to the feed.
It is important to note that feed formulation alone will not eliminate the negative impacts of heat stress, but instead can be used as an additional tool or strategy to combat the effects of heat on broiler health and performance. Maintaining cooling equipment like fans and cool pads, providing easy access to water, managing bird migration are all management practices that help to maintain bird performance during the summer months.
Vegetative Environmental Buffer (VEB) Tool Kits in Different Languages: English, Korean, Urdu, and Vietnamese
Delmarva Chicken Association website: https://www.dcachicken.com/VEB/
T he Delmarva Chicken Association (DCA) Vegetative Environmental Buffers Program was created to help with air quality improvements on chicken farms in Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. DCA assumed responsibility for the program in 2006 after its creation by the University of Delaware.
The planting of trees around chicken houses has both air quality and water quality benefits. Properly designed vegetative environmental buffers with farm-specific plants -- trees, shrubs and warm season grasses -- help capture air emissions from chicken houses. Additionally, these vegetative environmental buffers can absorb nutrients in the soil and water around chicken houses and help prevent the movement of nutrients to adjacent waters.
Vegetative environmental buffers also let growers reduce the time and expense of mowing grass. And DCA is also pioneering the adaption of pollinator-friendly vegetative environmental buffers, which promote crop pollination on top of their other advantages. In 2017, DCA was awarded a grant from Bayer's Feed A Bee program to help growers on Delmarva plant pollinator-friendly vegetative environmental buffers. Beginning in 2019, we've collaborated with the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance to research which pollinator-friendly plant species work best for growers, and converted high-maintenance mowed areas to low-maintenance pollinator-plot meadows all across Delmarva. This guide helps growers add pollinator-friendly buffers to their farms and transition lawns to meadows, including in swales between chicken houses.
Since 2006, the DCA Vegetative Environmental Buffers Coordinator has worked with hundreds of growers and overseen the designs of vegetative environmental buffers, helped growers navigate the systems of cost-share programs, and identified contractors to help with the plantings.
Delmarva chicken growers can contact us at dcachicken.com or 302-856-9037 to learn more about our VEB program. For DCA Resources page: https://www.dcachicken.com/resources/grower.cfm
VEB TOOL-KIT: A Guide to Vegetative Environmental Buffers (Revised 2020 Edition)
Coming Poultry Events!
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May 1: Insurance with Shane Kunkleman (Georgetown) Register: https://tinyurl.com/GLBinsurance
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May 20: Poultry Farm Management for Existing, New & Potential Growers (Snow Hill) Register: https://Poultry-Management-5-20-24.eventbrite.com
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June 26: Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Poultry Class (Salisbury)
Everyone is welcome! For more information, go to extension.umd.edu/poultry