Broiler Production in the Philippines

• Broiler production study notes from Pampanga State Agricultural University

Broiler Industry in the Philippines

• Total chicken production from April to June 2023: 477.76 thousand metric tons, liveweight
• Production grew 3.2% compared to 463.12 thousand metric tons in the same period of 2022

Top Producing Regions

• Central Luzon: 154.12 thousand metric tons
• CALABARZON: 93.90 thousand metric tons
• Northern Mindanao: 39.08 thousand metric tons
• Western Visayas: 32.22 thousand metric tons
• Central Visayas: 29.67 thousand metric tons

Selection of Stocks

• Performance: Determined by the broiler's genetic make-up and environmental conditions
• Adaptability and Availability: Broilers adapted to local conditions perform efficiently

Supplier Reliability

• Purchase day-old broiler chicks from a reputable and dependable supplier or chick dealer
• Delivery of quality chicks during cooler times (early morning or evening) is best

Ideal Broiler Chick Characteristics

• Reflex: Can flip over within 3 seconds
• Navel: Clean and well-healed
• Legs: Clean, waxy legs
• Hocks: Clean, no blemishes
• Defects: Clean, no defects

Housing and Facilities: Location

• Within an agricultural or agro-industrial zone
• At least 1 km from residential areas.
• At least 1 km from other poultry or livestock farms
• Accessibility to service roads, water supply, and electric lines
• Proper drainage for free air circulation.
• East-west building orientation is crucial
• To prevent odors to the farmhouse, site where prevailing winds will not carry them

Housing and Facilities: Basic Requirements

• Provide essential requirements for comfort, biosecurity, and protection from the elements
• Provide convenience and ease of work for caretakers
• Provide strength and durability to maximize investments

Traditional Poultry Houses (Conventional House)

• A conventional poultry house is a traditional, non-specialized building
• PROS: simple design and maintenance, indigenous materials can be used
• CONS: low capacity, labor-intensive, prone to calamities, weather-dependent, high biosecurity risk.

CCS1 Tunnel Poultry House

• Design is from the US and uses litter materials
• Litter-type poultry houses are where birds roam and rest on rice hulls and carbonized hulls
• PROS: Lower initial investment costs, promotes natural behavior and exercise, reduces fly infestation
• CONS: Higher labor costs for litter management, constant repairs to curtains, high mortalities due to power failure, rodents

CCS2 Tunnel Poultry House

• An advanced or upgraded version of the CCS1 model
• Incorporates enhanced features, technologies, or capacities
• PROS: Easy cleaning/maintenance, improved biosecurity, disease control and bird comfort, welfare and energy efficiency, cost savings
• CONS: Availability of litter and disposal of litter materials, increased construction time, and higher initial investment costs

CCS3 Tunnel Poultry House

• This is an advanced, high-tech poultry housing design
• PROS: High-tech climate control, increased efficiency/productivity, and enhanced biosecurity
• CONS: High initial investment costs, energy consumption, specialized training/expertise and fly infestation

CCS4 Tunnel Poultry House

• Type: elevated concrete
• A cutting-edge, climate-controlled poultry housing system
• PROS: Optimal bird comfort and performance, reduced mortality, advanced climate control, improved bird welfare, increased efficiency/productivity, enhanced biosecurity, and reduced fly infestation
• CONS: High initial investment costs, energy consumption/costs, and the need for specialized training/expertise

Multi-Tier Poultry House

• Vertically-designed poultry housing system featuring 2-5 stories
• Optimizes space, increases bird capacity, and reduces land requirements
• PROS: Space-efficient design, improved health/welfare, increased productivity/efficiency, reduced labor costs, enhanced biosecurity, and high bird capacity
• CONS: Higher initial investment costs/energy consumption the need for specialized training/expertise, and risk of high mortalities from equipment malfunction

Management Practices: Handling Broiler Chicks

• Separate weak chicks
• Remove and properly dispose of dead chicks
• Release chicks into the brooder immediately
• Closely monitor chicks for the first 48 hours
• Provide chicks with 5% sugar solution for drinking within 3 hours of arrival
• Provide fresh feeds and water
• Add vitamin-mineral supplements with antibiotics to the drinking water during the first 3-5 days
• Regulate brooder temperature
• Vaccinate broilers against common poultry diseases
• Cull and properly dispose all weak, deformed, and sickly chicks
• Consult a veterinarian if mortality and morbidity of the flock goes higher than the acceptable level

Brooding

• Is the process of providing supplemental heat
• Heats chicks for 24 hours from hatching
• Heat continues to be added up to the time that the chicks have grown sufficient feathers to control their body temperature.
• Brooding timespan: about 2–3 weeks, depending on the season
• The first 24 hours of the chick's life is the most important.
• A thermometer measures the actual temperature inside the brooder
• The chicks behavior in the brooder is a practical guide for body temperature control

Proper Brooder Temperature

• 1-7 days: 32.2–35.0°C
• 8-14 days: 29.4–32.2°C
• 14-21 days: 26.7–29.4°C
• Provide heat beyond 21 days only when necessary

Cannibalism

• Act of consuming a part of the body of another individual of the same species
• Occurs when the birds are stressed
• Birds are especially inclined to peck bright red areas, bleeding wounds, or the toes of other birds.

Causes of cannibalism:

• Overcrowding
• Poor ventilation
• Inadequate feeders and drinkers
• Imbalance or poor diet

Control of Cannibalism

• Isolate injured broilers immediately
• Treat wounds with pine tar or anti-peck solution ASAP
• Beak trimming is recommended if cannibalism persists

Feeding Management

• The genetic potential of broiler chickens can exclusively be expressed only if proper nutrition and management are provided

Systems of Feeding

• Ad libitum: feed is always available 24/7 and commonly practiced
• Restricted feeding: feed amount is measured and follows a schedule

Type of Feeds

• Pre-starter or chick booster: given to chicks from day-old to 2 weeks
• Broiler starter: given from 2-4 weeks old
• Broiler finisher: given from 4 weeks old until desired market weight & age

Form of Feeds

• Mash: ground and powdered form of feedstuffs, recommended for use only during the first 2 weeks
• Crumbles: coarsely ground pellets that can be fed to broilers during the entire growing period
• Pellets: compressed mash feed, recommended after 4 weeks onwards, compressed through a pelleting machine.

Feeding Management Rules

• Feed must be available at all times
• Lighting: Provide artificial to enable feeding at night
• Trough: refill often
• Fresh feed: should be mixed with the remaining feed in the trough during feeding time
• Troughs: do not allow to be empty longer than two hours

Tips to minimize feed wastage

• Fill beyond 1/3 of the capacity of the trough feeders
• Use the right size of feeder
• Each feeder should have a guard or lid
• Keep the brim of feeders level with the back of the chickens
• Give pelleted or crumbled feed instead of mash feed (if cost-effective)
• Check the crop

Health Management Tips: Biosecurity Definition

• A set of measures that prevent the spread of harmful organisms and diseases
• Applied in a variety of settings: farms, laboratories, and other facilities

What to do to maintain biosecurity:

• Raise only healthy and vigorous stocks
• Feed chickens nutritionally balanced rations with fresh drinking water
• Implement a vaccination program for prevalent diseases
• Provide comfortable housing with good ventilation
• Maintain clean surroundings.
• Construct poultry houses in such a way that wild birds and rodents cannot enter
• Avoid overcrowding
• Fence the production area to provide ample protection against scavengers and stray animals
• Practice an all-in-all-out method of operation
• Clean and disinfect poultry houses after depopulation
• Allow cleaned/disinfected buildings a rest period of at least 2 weeks before restocking
• Allow only flock men into the broiler houses
• Control flies and blood-sucking insects
• Provide foot dips
• Dispose sick and dead chickens by burning or burying
• Consult a veterinarian at the first sign of disease

Disease: Newcastle

• Newcastle disease specifically impacts birds and poultry
• Cause: Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV)
• Transmission: Direct contact with infected broiler, contaminated farm equipment, feed, or water, farm personnel and visitors, and migratory birds
• Symptoms: loss of appetite, coughing, gasping, nasal discharge, watery eyes, bright green diarrhea, paralysis, convulsions, swollen/discolored combs and wattles

Disease: Fowl Pox

• Fowl pox is a slow-spreading viral disease
• Cause: Avipox virus
• Transmission: Direct contact with infected broilers, mosquitoes, and other blood-sucking flies
• Symptoms: Dry (cutaneous) and wet (diphtheritic) forms

Disease: Infectious Bronchitis

• Risk: Young animals
• Cause: Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) - a coronavirus
• Transmission: Air-borne or aerosol, direct contact with sick birds, and contaminated feed, water, equipment, premises
• Symptoms: Conjunctivitis and nasal discharge, coughing, respiratory distress due to increased mucus in the trachea, significant egg production drop, thin/wrinkled eggshells, and damage to oviducts.

Disease: Infectious Coryza (IC) or Roup/Cold

• Cause: Avibacterium paragallinarum
• Transmission: Direct/indirect contact with infected birds, contaminated feed/water, and aerosols.
• Signs/Symptoms: Watery (then sticky/thick/odorous) discharge from the eyes/nostrils, facial swelling, sneezing, respiratory rules, snicking, and decreased feed intake

Disease: Colibacillosis (E. coli)

• Other Names: Escherichia Coli Infection, Avian Colibacillosis, Coliform Infection
• Chickens of all ages are susceptible
• Cause: Escherichia coli
• Clinical Diagnosis difficulty: Colibacillosis often occurs concurrently with other diseases
• In-Chicks symptoms: Omphalitis (inflamed navel/distended abdomen), Enteritis (watery dropping/depression) and Air sacculitis (thickened air sacs with exudate/pericarditis/perihepatitis/peritonitis)

Disease: Coccidiosis

• Transmission: Ingestion of sporulated oocyst in fecal-contaminated feed, water, litter and by Mechanical transmission and carriers Symptoms include: Depression, ruffled feathers, loss of appetite, blood-stained feces and decreases in efficiency/growth rate

Avian Influenza/ Bird Flu

• Highly contagious viral infection of wild and domestic birds
• Al is excreted through the nasal/respiratory secretions, cloaca, and feces of infected birds.
• Transmitted by direct/indirect contact with infected birds through aerosol droplets or virus-contaminated fomites
• Wild waterfowl (especially mallard ducks) are the primary hosts of influenza A viruses (IAV). *Most dangerous strain

Parameters In Broiler Production

• Initial weight: Weighing the birds upon arrival
• Final weight: Weighing the birds at the end of the growing period/study
• Gain in weight= Final weight – Initial weight
• Number of fattening days: the total days the birds are fattened
• Average daily gain in weight: Gain in Weight /Number of Fattening Days
• Feed consumption: Total Amount of Feed Given - Feed Refusal
• Average feed intake: Total Feed Consumed/Number of Fattening Days
• Feed conversion ratio: Total Feed Consumed/Total Gain in Weight
• Dressing percentage: Weight of the carcass X 100/Live weight
• Mortality Rate/ Percentage: Total number of Dead birds X 100/Total Number of birds started
• Morbidity Rate/ Percentage: Total number of sick birds X 100/Total Number of birds started