A suspected outbreak of Coccidiosis has claimed hundreds of poultry birds in Palaro Sub County in Gulu district. The disease has been reported in Palaro trading center, Mede, Oroko and Ongedo parishes.
An infected bird manifests with drooping in chicken, flu, difficulty in breathing, discharge of saliva, timidity and watery stools.
Irene Lamwaka, the Palaro Sub County female councillor-elect told URN on Monday that she lost thirty hens to the disease last week.
She explained that it is the first time she is witnessing such a devastating disease that kills poultry within few days of illness.
Lamwaka says that a local veterinary officer in the area identified the disease as Coccidiosis. Erick Komakech, another farmer from Ongedo parish said that he has lost 30 hens over the past week.
Komakech noted that he has personally started slaughtering some of the chicken, which presents with the symptoms before they succumb to it. David Oyite Ojok, another poultry farmer in Ongedo has also lost ten chickens to the disease.
The farmers say that they are treating the disease with pounded guava leaves and Tse-Tse flies repellents, which are believed to cure the disease.
However, Richard Sejjoba, an agriculturalist at Agrithon in Gulu City has advised the farmers to isolate infected chickens and burry or burn the carcasses of the dead ones to prevent further transmission.
He also urged farmers to practice indoor poultry farming since the disease spreads from one chicken to another through body contact, feeding and water points.
Coccidiosis is caused by protozoan parasites of the Eimeria genus, which is always present in the shed and farm environment.
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