HEAL ▶▶▶TH
Costs of poultry production diseases revealed
The ProHealth project, which aimed to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of pig and poultry farming recently held a symposium to share its findings. Poultry World reports.
BY TONY MCDOUGAL P
roduction diseases can cause major financial losses to poultry farmers if not controlled effectively. Diseases such as clostridiosis and coccidiosis threat- en to remove any profits broiler farmers make unless
there are meaningful interventions. The typical commercial broiler farmer made around € 0.30 a bird in 2013 yet costs due to uncontrolled disease from clostridiosis ran to more than that amount, while coccidiosis is costing farmers more than € 0.20 a bird. The figures fall to € 0.15 for clostridiosis and about € 0.12 for coccidiosis after intervention.
Cost The figures were released at the pan-European ProHealth in- dustry workshop and symposium in Ghent by Philip Jones, senior research fellow at the University of Reading’s School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. The study used a standard cost model based on 2013 EU average costs. Mr Jones said financial losses from production diseases were also considerable in the laying hen sector, where producers typically get around € 6/bird. Keel bone damage, according to the study, was estimated at € 3.50 per bird without interven- tion, falling to € 2.25 with treatment. Infectious bronchitis is also costly, with producers losing € 3.25 per bird, although the efficacy of intervention is considerable in this instance.
Fighting Disease with Big Data
Poultry and pig farmers are failing to make the most of dig- italisation because they are not joining up big data sets, which could help them make early interventions to miti- gate disease or even predict them. While the advent of precision farming is producing huge amounts of data, the lack of interoperability between sys- tems is holding back the agricultural sector. European veterinary specialist Dr Carlos Pineiro said the poultry sector had very sophisticated systems but often the data didn’t talk to each other, which prevented full analysis, monitoring and prediction from taking place. As part of its study into fighting disease with big data, the ProHealth project has produced a policy brief for the Euro- pean Commission, which calls on the EU and member states to collaborate to provide an appropriate framework
6 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 1, 2019
for ensuring interoperability. The brief calls on policy makers, industry professionals and farmers to promote the development and on-farm use of digital tools and sensors to monitor the barn environment. Interventions can include adjustments to rearing environ- ment, early treatment of the first symptoms and elimina- tion of stress factors. Questioned as to whether the advent of big data could lead to early veterinary treatment that might not be neces- sary due an increase in medications, Dr Pineiro argued that training would be key and that fine-tuning may be neces- sary. “For example, a farmer could review his herd or flock two or three times a day rather than once and medicate indi- vidually rather than as a group.”
PHOTO’S: DESIGN PICS INC/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
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