FLEAS ON POULTRY

I was visiting my poultry farm in Siaya County in Western Kenya, after staying away for a month for work-related engagements. I had left my poultry in the care of one of my cousins who doubled as an employee on my farm. My arrival wasn't welcomed with any excitement from my kuroiler stock...I had established some kind of attachment with my birds that the scent of my cologne would always illicit a rare kind of excitement. There was none this day.

I immediately noticed that Kunte, the largest and oldest breeder cockerel, was kinda dull and a few brown attachments on his face. The face looked pale and feathers uncharacteristically ragged. I felt that something was wrong and called up my veterinary officer.

When he came he informed me that my stock had been attacked by fleas...the attack was already so serious that most of the hand had stopped laying. I had been used to cleaning their coop after every one week, but my cousin had not done any cleaning brother had he sprayed or dusted the coop for the one month I was a way.

My vet guy advised me on a number of insecticides that would help me eradicate the parasites but none of them seemed to be of any help for a few months. I would remove the wood shavings from the run and dump them at a compost out within the farm. I would then thouroughly clean the run then dust with an insecticide, different ones for every occasion. But the attack that just for worse.

I had started losing so many chicken to the fleas, and especially the layers...I was later informed that layers would easily die from such an attack that left them so uncomfortable and anaemic...since this would be an added burden for those who were already spending so much energy during egg production. Their immunity was also much more comprised and therefore they would not survive the viscious attacks from the merciless parasites.

It was after I posted my predicament on a whatsup group for poultry farmers that I was introduced to ectomin, and advised on how to use it by a fellow farmer who had had a similar experience in the past. I was advised by Vet Ann, the farmer who was the group's admin, to remove all the wood shavings and burn them instead of dumping them within the farm...this would help in not only reducing the number of the parasites and their eggs but it would also prevent the re-introduction of the parasites and their eggs back to the stock, by the chicken who would be scavenging at the compost pit.

Vet