Poor Egg Production - Could be Spirochaetosis

Originally from: Mike
                        
Spirochaetes are commonly found in the caeca and rectum of hens but they were not always associated with disease. Disease shows as an increase in brown to yellow-coloured, soft to watery, even frothy, diarrhoea.

In laying hens, Spirochaetosis can cause drops in egg production of 5–10 per cent, drops in bodyweight and feed consumption and increases in mortality. BUT – other health problems can do this also, such as infectious bronchitis (IB), coccidiosis, mycoplasmosis and worms, so a series of diagnostic tests is needed to confirm the specific cause of the problem.

Vet, Alan Beynon, has recently investigated and reported a series of 10 farms with egg production problems. The results were published last month in "Ranger" – the journal of The British Free Range Egg Producers Association, and are now available online, complete with colour illustrations, at: www.octagon-services.co.uk/articles/poultry/spirochaetosis.pdf

Mike