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Questionnaire study and postmortem findings in backyard chicken flocks in Finland

BACKGROUND: Although modern commercial poultry production today is based on large farms and intensive husbandry, keeping backyard poultry has regained popularity in industrialized countries. However, the health status of backyard flocks is still relatively poorly documented. A questionnaire was sent...

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Autores principales: Pohjola, Leena, Rossow, Laila, Huovilainen, Anita, Soveri, Timo, Hänninen, Marja-Liisa, Fredriksson-Ahomaa, Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4307913/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25608622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13028-015-0095-1
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author Pohjola, Leena
Rossow, Laila
Huovilainen, Anita
Soveri, Timo
Hänninen, Marja-Liisa
Fredriksson-Ahomaa, Maria
author_facet Pohjola, Leena
Rossow, Laila
Huovilainen, Anita
Soveri, Timo
Hänninen, Marja-Liisa
Fredriksson-Ahomaa, Maria
author_sort Pohjola, Leena
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Although modern commercial poultry production today is based on large farms and intensive husbandry, keeping backyard poultry has regained popularity in industrialized countries. However, the health status of backyard flocks is still relatively poorly documented. A questionnaire was sent to the owners of 376 backyard poultry flocks (<500 birds) in order to study health management procedures and characterize backyard poultry populations in Finland. Information was also collected on the postmortem findings from non-commercial flocks using necropsy data from the Finnish Food Safety Authority (Evira). RESULTS: Backyard flocks in Finland are small in size (<50 birds), comprising mainly chickens. Based on the results of the questionnaire, the health of such flocks is good, mortality low and vaccinations are not commonly used. Most of the flocks were registered in the national poultry register. The standard biosecurity practices are not generally applied and contact with wild birds, pets and farm animals is frequent, which can make the flocks more prone to infectious diseases. We conducted an 11-year retrospective study of the postmortem necropsy findings of the Evira in order to document the diseases, which caused mortality in backyard chickens in Finland. Necropsy was performed on a total of 132 non-commercial laying hens during 2000 – 2011. The most common postmortem findings were Marek’s disease (27%) and colibacillosis (17%). CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to report data on characteristics of and management practices for backyard chicken flocks in Finland. Close connections with commercial flocks are rare and farms are usually distantly located suggesting that the risk that these backyard flocks pose to commercial poultry is low.
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spelling pubmed-43079132015-01-28 Questionnaire study and postmortem findings in backyard chicken flocks in Finland Pohjola, Leena Rossow, Laila Huovilainen, Anita Soveri, Timo Hänninen, Marja-Liisa Fredriksson-Ahomaa, Maria Acta Vet Scand Research BACKGROUND: Although modern commercial poultry production today is based on large farms and intensive husbandry, keeping backyard poultry has regained popularity in industrialized countries. However, the health status of backyard flocks is still relatively poorly documented. A questionnaire was sent to the owners of 376 backyard poultry flocks (<500 birds) in order to study health management procedures and characterize backyard poultry populations in Finland. Information was also collected on the postmortem findings from non-commercial flocks using necropsy data from the Finnish Food Safety Authority (Evira). RESULTS: Backyard flocks in Finland are small in size (<50 birds), comprising mainly chickens. Based on the results of the questionnaire, the health of such flocks is good, mortality low and vaccinations are not commonly used. Most of the flocks were registered in the national poultry register. The standard biosecurity practices are not generally applied and contact with wild birds, pets and farm animals is frequent, which can make the flocks more prone to infectious diseases. We conducted an 11-year retrospective study of the postmortem necropsy findings of the Evira in order to document the diseases, which caused mortality in backyard chickens in Finland. Necropsy was performed on a total of 132 non-commercial laying hens during 2000 – 2011. The most common postmortem findings were Marek’s disease (27%) and colibacillosis (17%). CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to report data on characteristics of and management practices for backyard chicken flocks in Finland. Close connections with commercial flocks are rare and farms are usually distantly located suggesting that the risk that these backyard flocks pose to commercial poultry is low. BioMed Central 2015-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC4307913/ /pubmed/25608622 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13028-015-0095-1 Text en © Pohjola et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Pohjola, Leena
Rossow, Laila
Huovilainen, Anita
Soveri, Timo
Hänninen, Marja-Liisa
Fredriksson-Ahomaa, Maria
Questionnaire study and postmortem findings in backyard chicken flocks in Finland
title Questionnaire study and postmortem findings in backyard chicken flocks in Finland
title_full Questionnaire study and postmortem findings in backyard chicken flocks in Finland
title_fullStr Questionnaire study and postmortem findings in backyard chicken flocks in Finland
title_full_unstemmed Questionnaire study and postmortem findings in backyard chicken flocks in Finland
title_short Questionnaire study and postmortem findings in backyard chicken flocks in Finland
title_sort questionnaire study and postmortem findings in backyard chicken flocks in finland
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4307913/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25608622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13028-015-0095-1
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