Effect of Feed Medicaments on Bacterial Infections in Ducklings

Abstract

In a series of experiments, various feed medicaments were fed continuously to ducklings naturally infected with P. anatipestifer (PA). Mortality in control groups ranged from 16 to 65% and was 25% or above in all but one experiment. Seventy-two to 93% of the mortality in these experiments occurred between the 14th and 28th day. Among the drugs tested, sulfaquinoxaline was the most effective in reducing mortality. Maximum effect of this drug was achieved at a dietary level of 0.025%. Sulfachloropyrazine and oxytetracycline (OTC) each lowered mortality in one .out of two experiments. The combination of oxytetracycline and sulfaquinoxaline gave the same results as sulfaquinoxaline alone. Drugs that failed to reduce mortality were; sulfamethazine (SM), furazolidone, chlortetracycline (CTC), streptomycin-penicillin, neomycin-OTC, CTC-SM-penicillin and SQ-SM-sulfamerazinesulfathiazole. Among the drugs studied only furazolidone and oxytetracycline (in one of two experiments) depressed weight gain. This occurred in both cases at a level of 0.022%. Although sulfaquinoxaline when fed continuously did not reduce weight at market age, it did depress weight gain 0-2 weeks. Sulfaquinoxaline caused a hypoprothrombinemia which was reversed by feeding 5 mg of menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite per kilogram of diet.In another series of experiments, ducklings fed a mixture of sulfadimethoxine and ormetoprim were experimentally infected with either PA, P. multocida (PM) or E. coli (EC). This drug mixture was ineffective against PA and EC but markedly lowered mortality of ducklings infected with PM.In other studies, early growth of ducklings with low level salmonellosis was markedly improved (6-11%) by feeding furazolidone. ABSTRACTRegression analysis of data from 2,815 fertile Coturnix eggs showed a very highly significant linear regression of hatchability on shape index. Estimates of surface to volume ratios from shape indices produced values fitting the regressed hatchability estimates very closely. Correlation between estimated values was + 0.998 (P < 0.001).

Sodium Requirement for Muscovy Ducks in Housing

“…Pulls (1988) and Guyton & Hall (1997) observed that unbalance in the requirement of sodium in the diets results in the absorption of amino acids and monosaccharides by the gastrointestinal tract, whose transport is highly dependent of sodium and potassium bomb, directly affecting weight gain and feed conversion. According to Dean et al (1973), ducks and muscovy ducks are very sensitive to sodium deficiency, with levels below the minimum recommendation and can cause mortality of more than 60%.…”