Housing: plastered versus un-plastered brooder walls in poultry production

Abstract

An investigation was carried out to study the health impact of inadequate brooder house with poor make-up on chicks. Two brooder houses were constructed with a mixture of sand and cementitious materials consisting of lime and/or gypsum to form concrete blocks. Brooder 1 was plastered with cement (cemented) and served as control while brooder 2 was not plastered with cement (un-cemented) and served as the treatment. One hundred (100) day old broilers of mixed sexes and also 100 cockerels were used in the experiment that lasted for 28 days. Fifty broilers (50) and fifty (50) cockerels were randomly assigned to the plastered and un- plastered brooder houses. The results obtained showed that broilers placed in plastered building suffered 6 mortalities out of 50 representing 12% and also that 4 cockerels representing 8% died in the cemented brooder. Results obtained in the un- plastered brooder walls showed that 31 broilers representing 62% died while 22 cockerels equivalent to 44% suffered mortality. The high incidence of mortalities in the un- plastered brooder house could be due to the ingesting of mixture of cement/sand particles used in moulding the blocks which became too toxic for the chicks at their tender age. Conclusion was reached that keeping in view with the hazards of cement, it is advisable therefore, to plaster the walls of the poultry houses to prevent the birds from pecking and swallowing cement particles.

Keywords: Broilers, brooder, cemented, cockerels, un-cemented