AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Why is biosecurity so important? Why can’t birds simply be medicated when they fall ill?
The problem with poultry production is that many avian diseases, such as avian influenza and Newcastle disease, have no cure.
So the best strategy is to prevent these diseases from entering your farm in the first place through a good biosecurity and sanitation programme.
The worldwide movement against the use of antibiotics due to rising fears over antimicrobial resistance is also putting pressure on farmers to use more preventative control measures. Even here in South Africa, cases of E. coli resistance have been reported for certain antimicrobials.
Antibiotics should be used only as a last resort, and then as prescribed by the veterinarian who identified the disease.
