Both disease incidence and mortality losses reduce the -profitability of raising chickens. Birds gown beyond eight weeks of age should be vaccinated against Mareks disease and fowl pox. Commercial hatcheries can vaccinate saleable chickens at day-old. Most proprietary chicken rations contain a coccidiostat at a preventive level. Where rations are mixed on the farm, always include a coccidiostat in the feed.
Chickens are also susceptible to uraemia, a disease caused by the infectious bronchitis virus.
Symptoms are commonly seen at four to six weeks of age, during cold, wet weather. Treatment is with molasses at a rate of 30 g of molasses to one litre of drinking water for five to seven days. A death rate of over 0.5 per cent per week is regarded as high. Dressing poultry Small numbers of farm-grown poultry for home consumption can be dressed by hand on the premises, or by some of the smaller commercial poultry processors. Under the Chicken Meat Industry Act, the establishment of a poultry processing plant for processing broilers requires the approval of the Minister for Agriculture.