Chicken vaccine

 TERMINOLOGIES ASSOCIATED WITH VACCINE AND VACCINATION(1)

The subject of vaccination ordinarily should not be discussed in an unprofessional platform such as social media. 

This is because vaccine handling and administration is somewhat of a professional role.

That being said, I must admit that over the years, the number of poultry farmers has increased tremendously, while the population of Veterinarians or trained animal health workers has not grown to match the need for basic animal health care.

It implies that if trained personnel must attend to every poultry farm around his/her jurisdiction for the sake of oral vaccine administration, he/she will be overwhelmed.

I shall endeavour to make simple the terms and processes associated with oral vaccine administration.

VACCINE:

This refers to a biological substance that is prepared for the sake of an immune stimulus. 

Vaccines are specific for particular diseases, i.e. there is a vaccine that protects against Newcastle disease; another protects against Gumboro disease, etc.

Uninformed Poultry farmers have erroneously referred to every substance they give to restore or maintain the health of their birds as vaccines.

I must emphasize that Antibiotics are not vaccines neither are Anticoccidials vaccines.

For easy identification, oral poultry vaccines are commonly packaged in small labeled bottles. They are kept cold in refrigerators to maintain potency.

These days, some vaccines come in tablet forms.

They are administered to only healthy birds. It may not be necessary to give vaccines to sick birds.

The timing and frequency of vaccine administration can be determined by your veterinarian who will decide based on the pattern of poultry diseases in your locality.

Copying a vaccine schedule you saw online may be a wrong practice.

Maintaining all year round a schedule you were given may be unnecessary.

Get instructions on how to reconstitute oral vaccines from trained personnel.

DOSES:

Oral vaccines are prepared in doses.

These referred to the number of birds required to take a particular preparation.

A hundred chicks will require 100 doses of vaccines. Likewise, 200 doses are for two hundred chicks.

Ensure that you do not subject your birds to doses beyond their population or below their number.

Some situations may require you to purchase doses that exceed the number of your birds e.g. 200 doses might still be purchased for 170 chicks.

The reconstitution and administration must be guided by trained persons.

Pls follow this page to get the whole gamut of this matter.

Also read: DISEASE IDENTIFICATION FROM DROPPINGS