Description
Whilst food is generally becoming cheaper, many people want to splash out at Christmas and spend that little extra on a Christmas turkey. Rather than going to a supermarket, many people want to go to their local farm or butcher shop. This has led to many non-poultry farmers raising a few turkeys for Christmas. As the farmers tend not to be dedicated poultry farmers, they often don’t have the facilities to raise turkeys optimally. As such, Christmas turkeys can develop many conditions not commonly seen in intensive turkey production. This webinar discusses the common conditions (such as: worms, respiratory disease, blackhead, brooding issues, diarrhoea, and sudden death) seen in seasonal turkey production. The webinar examines: clinical signs, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Husbandry is focused on in the webinar in order to reinforce the impact that management of turkeys has on their health. Many of the common management pitfalls are discussed so that the general veterinary practitioner can identify why their client’s turkeys have become ill. There is guidance on looking after day old turkeys as they can be much more fragile to look after than day old chickens. The webinar tries to focus on the small flock rather than the individual bird. The webinar discusses the use of antibiotics in these food producing animals from a legal and practical standpoint. The webinar also covers veterinary public health considerations such as Salmonella. Turkey welfare is discussed from the perspective of beak treatment options and management. This year, the WATOK legislation came into force across England and Wales (it was previously enacted in Scotland) changing the rules surrounding the stunning of and slaughtering of livestock including Christmas turkeys.
Richard Jackson grew up on a turkey farm and had a keen interest in breeding and showing rare breeds of chickens and ducks. He graduated from Glasgow Vet School in 2010 and has worked at St. David’s poultry team ever since. He became the clinical director in 2013. Richard has run a number of training courses and given several webinars on both management and diseases of backyard poultry.