Pathological observations on diseased cockerels in rural areas of Bangladesh

The poultry farmers of rural area in Bangladesh usually prefer raising cockerel to broiler due to availability, low price of chicks, requirement of less space and feed, and high price of meat and the farmers believe that the cockerels are less susceptible to diseases in comparison to broilers. This study was carried out to observe the pathology of diseased cockerel in 3 farms of rural area in Bangladesh. A total of 974 birds were examined and the diagnoses of different disease/conditions were based on the history, clinical signs, characteristic gross, tissue alterations, clinical pathology and isolation and identification of the pathogenic organisms. The diseases in this study included infectious bursal disease, yolk sac infection, vitamin E deficiency, coccidiosis, and other diseases. The proportionate mortality rate were $7.29\%,\;0.62\%,\;0.72\%,\;0.21\%\;and\;0.10\%$, respectively, which indicated that most of the fatal causes of death were due to infectious bursal disease. Age group of 2-8 week old were the most susceptible to this disease and E coli was suggested as a cause of yolk sac infection. The data also suggested that the coccidiosis in rural areas of Bangladesh has decreased due to awareness of the farmers and routine use of coccidiostates.