How to Prevent and Control Livestock Diseases and Pest.
Having basic knowledge on how to prevent and control of livestock diseases and pests in farm animals is a must-have prerequisite for successful livestock production.
The prevalence of the disease in a given flock is one of the major drawbacks responsible for the complete failure in animal production.
In order to be a successful livestock farmer, you need to have the basic knowledge on the prevention and control of diseases affecting livestock animals on your farm.
Prevention is always better than cure. Most times when you start noticing the symptoms of a particular disease it is often already too late.
It means some of your farm animals might die of the disease and quite a number might recover.
Therefore the onus here is to equip yourself with the basic knowledge of disease control in your farm animals.
The processes of disease control might seem simple and too familiar but a lot of farmers find it difficult to adhere to it.
To prevent and control livestock diseases and pests, the following harmful organisms are responsible for the prevalent of the various diseases in your flocks.
READ ALSO: Planning a Livestock Farm and how to Make It Profitable
Diseases of animals are caused by the following disease-causing organism:
• Bacteria
• Fungi
• Viruses
• Protozoal
• Parasitic organisms
• And deficiency in nutrition
Examples of Viral Diseases are
• Foot and mouth disease
• Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia
• Rinderpest
• New castle disease
• Calf scours
• fowl pox
• Chronic respiratory disease.
Examples of bacterial diseases are
• Tuberculosis
• Anthrax
• Brucellosis
• Mastitis.
• Black quarter (black-leg)
Rabbits relaxing
Examples of protozoal diseases include
• Trypanosomiasis
• Piroplasmosis or babesiasis
Fungal diseases include
• Ringworm.
A parasite is an organism that lives in or on another organism for food and nutrition.
The parasite gains from the association while the host suffers severe damages through the loss of blood and disease.
Two major types of parasites are:
Endoparasites which live in the animal (host) e.g.
• Tapeworm
• Roundworm
• Liver fluke
Ectoparasites they live on the body of the animal i.e. outside the host e.g.
• Flea
• Tick
• Louse
Recommended for you:
Cattle Rearing, Maximizing Your Profit through Minimizing Your Cost of Production
How to make cow fattening profitable
How to Engage In Profitable Sheep Fattening For Maximum Profits
General Methods of Prevention and Control of Livestock Diseases and Pest
• Well nourish animals will have less incidence of disease, provide a good and adequate balanced diet always.
• If you want to prevent and control livestock diseases and pests, always go for animals with a good immune system and good resistant breeds.
• Newly acquired livestock’s from the market or other farms should be quarantined before being allowed to join others. After being certified to be disease-free.
• Maintenance of a clean environment is important in order to prevent and control livestock diseases and pests.
• Farm animals should be allowed to graze in paddocks with rich nutritive forages under the supervision of the farmer.
• In the prevention and control of livestock diseases and pests always vaccinate animals against diseases that require vaccination.
• Cull sick and unproductive animals.
• Young animals are generally more susceptible to parasites than adults. Therefore young animals should be housed separately from adult animals.
• Pen floors should be well maintained. Adequate ventilation, a good drainage system should be provided for good hygiene, and disease prevention.
• Provision of clean feed and water is an important prerequisite in the prevention and control of livestock diseases and pests.
• Wash the feeding and watering troughs regularly and disinfectant when applicable.
• Only keep animals of the same age, sex, and breed together.
• Call the veterinary officer for a routine check-up.
• Prevention and control of livestock diseases and pest entails Deworming animals for internal parasites regularly for optimal performance.
• Provide dipping services against ectoparasites
SEE ALSO:
Poultry Farming: Why Some People Fail
8 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Poultry Farming
Rabbit farming: Profitability and Best Practices that will Yield High Result
Further Preventive Measures
• Carry out regular checkups, observation, and treatment of diseases.
• Adequate space and stocking density should be provided to avoid overcrowding of animals.
• Care should be taken to see that dogs (intermediate hosts), crows, and other birds (mechanical carriers) do not gain access to the animal farm.
• Vaccines may be used to prevent infection if suitable vaccines are available.
• Adequate protective gear against the disease should be provided, uninvited visitors, visitors without protective gear should be Restricted from entering animal houses.
`
• Stagnant water pools, ponds should be filled up or fence because they contain pathogens and disease-carrying bacterial. To prevent farm animals from getting access to them. It is always better to have a piped water supply to farm animals.
• It is always a good practice to Maintain records of all the livestock on your farm in order to know their susceptibility and resistance to diseases.
