Socio-economic Status, Rearing System and Disease Prevalence of Poultry in Southern Part of Chattogram, Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was conducted in the southern part of Chattogram (Patiya upazilla) to know about the socio-economic condition, rearing system, and disease prevalence of poultry in the concerned area. The data were collected from randomly selected 100 poultry farmers from fourteen unions. STATA was used to do a statistical analysis on the data. Most of the farmers were male (95%) and middle-aged (65%). More than half of the farmers chose poultry farming as their major vocation, even though only 32% had received training on poultry farming. 95% farms were gable-type (91%) tin-roofed, where broilers and sonali were raised in a litter system and layers were farmed in a cage system. 62% of the farms were in an east-west direction, while 10% of the farms were non-directional. Sawdust was the most frequently used litter material (56%), while rice husk mixed with sawdust were also reported by 32% of farmers. Heat stress is a regular phenomenon in all poultry farms and accounts for 18% of the farms directly affected by excess heat, but farmers took various steps such as using fans, sprays, and sprinkling to reduce the effect of scorching heat. 58% farmers faced a 5-10% mortality rate, and 82% of farmers did postmortem to identify the disease. It is alarming to see that just 12% of farmers were aware of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), despite 66% of farmers having a basic understanding of antibiotics and their applications. The prevalent diseases encountered by the farmers were Infectious Bursal Disease (31%), Newcastle Disease (8%), Aspergillosis (18%), Salmonellosis (20%), Colibacillosis (16%), and Coccidiosis (2%). The occurrence of the disease was due to insufficient biosecurity measures. Only 4% of the farms practiced the fumigation process while 5% of the farms had footbath facilities. Farmers also faced various problems that hindered their poultry farming, among them higher costs of feed and raw materials (97%), a higher price of Day Old Chick (94%), and fluctuating market prices (87%) of poultry products were some on top. The government should provide accessible loan facilities, subsidized costs for feed and DOC, and steady market prices so that the poultry sector becomes more promising and lucrative.