ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to find the effect of the delayed routine vaccination
schedules on growth performance, blood parameters and immunity levels of broilers
reared in a humid tropical part of Nigeria. A total of 90 broiler chickens were procured
and sorted into three treatments (control, 1 week delay in vaccination and 2 weeks delay
in vaccination). The results showed significant differences (P < 0.05) in all growth
parameters studied with lower values for broilers with delayed vaccination schedules
(Treatment 2 and 3). Shank length and gains in shank length were not significantly
(P>0.05) affected by delayed vaccination schedule. The blood parameters (PCV and
WBC) values were significantly (P<0.01) lower in birds whose vaccination schedule was
delayed for two weeks, (Treatment 3) compared to other treatments while immunity
levels were significantly (P<0.01) lower in Treatment 3 compared to Treatments 2 and 1
respectively. It was concluded that delayed vaccination schedule of up to two weeks
considerably affected growth performance and immunity status of bro
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page ———————————————————————————- i
Certification —————————————————————————— ii
Dedication ——————————————————————————– iii
Acknowledgment ———————————————————————— iv
Table of Contents ———————————————————————– v
List of Tables —————————————————————————- vii
Abstract ———————————————————————————- viii
CHAPTER ONE: INTODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study ———————————————————- 1
1.2 Objectives of the Study ————————————————————- 4
1.3 Justification ————————————————————————– 4
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Some Common Diseases of Poultry. ——————————————— 6
2.1.1 New Castle Disease: ————————————————————– 6
2.1.2 Infectious Bursal Disease (Gumboro Disease): —————————— 9
2.1.3 Fowl Pox ————————————————————————— 11
2.2 Vaccines and Vaccination ———————————————————- 12
2.3 The Importance of Vaccination ————————————————— 13
2.4 Deciding Whether or not to Vaccinate —————————————— 14
2.5 Types of Vaccines: —————————————————————– 15
2.6 Administration ———————————————————————– 16
2.7 Types of Vaccination Programmes ———————————————– 18
2.8 Tips For Successful Vaccination ————————————————- 20
2.9 Vaccine Distribution —————————————————————- 21
2.10 Factors Which Interfere With Vaccine Efficacy —————————– 21
CHAPTER THREE: MATERIALS AND METHODS
3.1 Location and Duration of the Study ——————————————— 25
3.2 The Experimental Animals. —————————————————— 25
3.3 General sanitation and Health measures —————————————– 26
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3.4 Experimental Design: ————————————————————— 26
3.5 Data Collection Analysis ———————————————————– 27
3.6 Analysis of Data ——————————————————————— 31
CHAPTER FOUR
Results ———————————————————————————— 32
CHAPTER FIVE
Discussion ——————————————————————————– 37
CHAPTER SIX
Summary Conclusion and Recommendation —————————————- 39
References ——————————————————————————– 41
Appendices
CHAPTER ONE
INTODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The poultry industry in Nigeria is characterized by a mixture of backyard,
peasant, household-oriented and modern large scale poultry farms which dot our country
side and urban centres today. It can be said that poultry keeping has become a business in
Nigeria since Poultry is now kept by practically every household in Nigeria especially in
rural communities (Obioha 1992). Broilers are meat type chickens that reach market size
at about 8-10 weeks of age. Nearly 80% of all commercial chicks hatched in Nigeria are
broilers (Bundy et al 1975).
Poultry occupies a unique position in Nigeria animal production programme for several
reasons. The most important of these is the fact that poultry are relatively free from the
many pathological, ecological and economic constraints which affect the commercial
production of other breeds and classes of livestock in Nigeria (Obioha 1992). The
occurrence of disease in a poultry flock is a serious event and one that causes a lot of
anxiety to a poultry farmer due to the fact that most commercial poultry are reared
intensively with a large number of birds occuping a relative small area, a disease can
spread rapidly among the whole flock causing a high level of mortality and huge financial
loss to the farmer. The prevention of disease therefore is a decisive factor to the success
or failure of a poultry enterprise. Diseases of poultry can be caused by four major factors
namely: pathogens, poor management, deficiency of nutrients and metabolic disorders.
Most poultry diseases are brought about by the presence of one or more pathogens or
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causative organisms. These organisms are always present in any poultry environment but
they attain a virulent stage when the resistance of the chicken is low due to internal or
external stress. The stress condition may be created by mismanagement, transportation,
handling, internal parasite or even excessive excitement (Obioha 1992). The infectious
organism may also gain easy access to the tissue of the birds following wound that may
be cause by cannibalism. Some of the common sources of stress are lack of feed and
water, poor ventilation, inadequate floor space, poor sanitation, high internal and external
parasitic load, extremes of weather, vaccination failure, sudden changes in feed or
environment, pests, flies, ants, nutritional deficiencies etc.
Apart from encouraging the invasion of pathogens, bad management may cause
disease directly. Examples of bad management are over crowding, poor ventilation,
failure to vaccinate at the right time, failure to remove dead birds promptly, failure to
remove droppings regularly leading to accumulation of ammonia and breeding site of
pathogens and parasites, cannibalism, uncontrolled access of visitors to poultry farms and
absence of disinfectant troughs or dips.
Poultry disease maybe caused by lack of or deficiency of one or more essential
nutrients. This is why poultry feeds should be balanced. Where one element is deficient
or excessive it can induce or cause the body to show symptoms relevant to such
deficiency or excessesive availability of the nutrient. A group of diseases may be caused
by faulty metabolic process in the body. These include the fatty liver syndrome. Animal
diseases are important limitation to edible protein production. It is the goal of veterinary
medicine to reduce losses due to animal diseases and in cooperation with animal
scientists, to develop positive live stock /poultry health programme (Oyenuga et al 1973).
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Vaccination of poultry is very important disease prevention programme in poultry
farming. Vaccines have varying expiration dates, depending on the storage temperature
and nature of production. The expiration date is based on holding the vaccine under
optimum conditions, frequently involving refrigeration. Vaccines that are expired have
lost part of their antigenic properties and are ineffective as immunizing agents.
Vaccination of poultry animals are programmed based on age of birds and are
administered based on age and body weight. Although vaccination is an important
weapon in the control of many livestock diseases, the immunity produced is overcome by
massive exposure of birds to infection, by moderate contact with a highly virulent strain
of the infecting agent or by stress, e.g. poor environment conditions.
Moreover it is not the purpose of a vaccine to protect an animal that is inoculated
while in the incubation stage of a disease. Vaccination should not be considered as a
panacea in disease control. It should be supplemented with sanitary measures designed to
prevent the introduction and spread of disease. Some poultry diseases can not be treated
properly by medication but can be controlled by vaccination; therefore vaccination of
poultry against certain diseases and at the right timing help in proper growth rate as well
as reduced morbidity and mortality in the flock. Evidence has shown that there are
delayed vaccination programmes for broilers reared by some farmers in remote villages
or farmers that rear their birds in locations where veterinary care is limited or non
existent; that is why this research is aimed at knowing the effect of those delayed
vaccination on growth and mortality rate of affected birds.
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1.2 Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study are as follows
1. To find out the effects of irregular timing of vaccination on the growth
performance of broilers.
2. To determine the mortality rate of broilers subjected to irregular vaccination
schedules.
3. To determine the Haemagglutination inhibition values and the Haematological
values (Packed cell volumes and White blood cell counts) of birds not
vaccinated at the appropriate times.
1.4 Justification
Vaccination is an effective means of preventing or reducing the adverse effect of
specific diseases in poultry especially viral diseases. The control of viral disease is
dependent upon prevention through sanitation, biosecurity and by vaccination. In some
areas or small farms, vaccination is seldom practiced because of some reasons namely;
low cases of disease problems in farms, lack of proper diagnosis and expensive cost of
vaccines as poultry vaccines usually come in 100-1000 dose vials. Vaccines come in
either live or inactivated forms which have their advantages and disadvantages. What
normally brings about vaccination failure include, breaking the cold chain by poor
storage since they come in freeze dried forms, exposing the vaccine directly to sunlight or
heat and lack of adoption of proper route of vaccination. These can reduce the potency of
a vaccine. The timing or schedule of vaccination can also affect the performance of the
birds. These factors leading to vaccination failures abound with little or no information to
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the farmers as to why they occur and the extent of loss caused to the farmer. Nigeria is
largely a country where minimum attention is paid to quality control or adherence to
prescribed conditions for storage of drugs and for vaccines. As such, the poultry farmers
and their enterprises are limitlessly at the mercy of agencies that procure vaccines/drugs
and fail to adhere to manufacturer’s specifications about storage and shelf life since
nobody actually monitors them to ensure that there specification are adhered to. The best
that can be done to inform farmers could be to document the affects of vaccination
failures to the birds being reared to create awareness which may lead to asking pertinent
questions about storage life of each vaccine before procuring them for use in a poultry
enterprise.
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