STEPS INVOLVED IN CARRYING OUT POST MORTEM OPERATION AND ITS RESULT.

Poultry business is a very lucrative agribusiness; it is one of the fast ways to make money from agriculture. Poultry products are essential for the growth and development of humans. Poultry meat is one of the highly nutritious meats; so also the egg, it contains necessary vitamins and minerals for healthy living. These virtues have provided a promising market for poultry business; it is a business that can never be saturated. Its opportunity increases as population increases.

However, as lucrative as the business is, it has just one cog in its wheel. It is called a disease. Disease is the deviation in the normal state of health of any animal; for a poultry business to be productive, the birds have to be in good health condition always. Any change in their state of health can be detrimental to the productivity of the birds. In case of any disease outbreak, post mortem is the best operation to know the actual bane of the disease.

Post-mortem operation is an operation carried out on birds to know the real cause of its death. Its result will give the farmer a precise and relevant solution. Post-mortem is done when there is an acute mortality on the farm claiming humongous number of birds. This operation gives a precise cause of the disease and the actual medication to prevent further outbreak of such disease. A live bird is needed to carry out this operation; below are the steps required to carry out this operation and the symptoms of common poultry disease as indicated by the internal organs.

Steps involved in carrying out a post-mortem operation.

Prior to carrying out the operation, you should first check your environment for any causative agent like the nature of the litter material. Check the moisture content level of the litter material; check the birds’ droppings for any change. After these the major operation starts and it goes thus;

• Take a live bird; hit it on the wall three times to make it drop dead. 

• Soak the bird in water to avoid the spread of disease through the spreading of its feather. 

• Cut the skin of the thigh, if there is spotted blood on the thigh it is a sign ofGUMBORO DISEASE but to confirm this check the chest if the same blood spots stains the chest, then .you conclude the bird has GUMBORO disease.

• If there is excess fat on the intestine, it means the bird has PROLAPSE. 

• If you notice the gizzard is greenish in color, it is a MIXED INFECTION, use antibiotics for 3-5 days.

• If there are spots on the liver, the disease is LEUCOCIS. Apply antibiotics to treat this.

• If there is blood spots on the proventiculus , the disease is NEWCASTLE DISEASE.  Use antibiotics and when they birds are well treated apply Newcastle disease vaccine.

• When the intestine looks brownish or of cola color when cut, it means the bird has COCCIDIOSIS.  

NOTE: Any of the above results above could be seen on a bird, it is advisable to treat the remaining birds on the farm against the disease gotten from the post-mortem. Also a bird cannot have all the above disease but one or two maybe observed. Effective treatments and vaccination should be administered to debar further losses. Also, do not vaccinate sick birds, rather give necessary treatments before vaccination; vaccination prevents diseases while treatment cures diseases.