Category: Premium Animals Section

The Situation: Communal cattle production grazing of the natural range is the primary source of herd nutrition and there is an inverse relationship between actual stocking density and range carrying capacity. This is largely due to the incidence of tsetse fly which requires a certain degree of humidity to survive so that infested areas have relatively good rainfall and a high natural forage growing potential. Serious overstocking occurs within these areas of cattle concentration to the extent that malnutrition is the single most important disease affecting cattle in Nigeria at…...

Below are the major production constraints of cattle production with regards to feed supplies, Breeding, Diseases and Land Tenure as well as how to handle the problems according to their level of problems as to maximize profit in cattle production using Nigeria as a case study. 1) Free Supplies The provision of feed that is adequate both in quantity and quality are available all years round countries to be one of the major problems of cattle production in Nigeria. Communal grazing of the natural range is the primary source of…...

Cattle production’s long history and milk production was not always the ultimate goal. Keeping cows and oxen for draughting purposes and for the production of natural manure was as important as for milk and beef production even in Europe till the mid of the twentieth century. This is the reason that quite a number of European breeds are well muscled and have sound feet and legs. Modern breeding programs combined with artificial insemination (AI) were applied in most of the breeds, improving milk yield and beef performance at the same…...

Vaccination plays an important part in the health management of the poultry flock. There are numerous diseases that are prevented by vaccinating the chickens against them. A vaccine helps to prevent a particular disease by triggering or boosting the bird’s immune system to produce antibodies that in turn fight the invading causal organisms. Below is a guide on the lists of the vaccines and their route of administration for your birds: Vaccine Time Route ND I/O Between Day 1& 5 Intraocular or nasal Marek’s Day 1 Subcut (Usually done from…...

Fowl pox is a slow-spreading viral disease of chickens characterized by lesions on the unfeathered skin areas and/or mucous membranes of the oral cavity, larynx, or trachea.   The disease is caused by the avian poxvirus which is classified as at least three different strains or types, including fowl poxvirus (FPV) that affects chickens and turkeys, pigeon poxvirus (PPV) that occurs in pigeons, and canary poxvirus (CPV) that affects different species of wild birds.   Each virus strain can only cause disease within certain species of birds. For example, chickens…...