A number of chicken farmers in Linden have reported that they are seeing an unusual case of ‘stunted growth’ in their birds, which a veterinary officer in the region has said is not isolated to the area and may be due to a protein deficiency in their feed.
Zenia Carter of South Amelia’s Ward was the first to go public about the issue after she invested in 90 chicks with the expectation of getting a reasonable “Christmas hand.”
Four of the birds died, while the remainder reached their sixth week maturity on Wednesday, when they should have been ready for plucking. “At six weeks, with all the feed I have been giving, none of them ain’t reach three pounds, not one, and this can’t be right, is not the first time I mining (rearing) chickens,” Carter said.
Dianne Allicock and Carla Henry of Amelia’s Ward and a number of farmers from other areas in Linden have experienced the same fate and some were rearing as many as 300 birds.
The distraught farmers all said that they fed the birds chick starter up to three weeks, changed to grower and subsequently they were also given broiler booster, among other things, but there was no evident improvement in weight.
The farmers also said that they noticed that the feed purchased from Guyana Stockfeeds Limited was unusually white as opposed to the usual yellowish colour.
Carter said that she aired her concerns on a local farmers’ call-in television programme broadcast on National Communications Network (NCN) and this saw a prompt response.
All the farmers said that they were visited by local veterinary officer in Region 10, Dr. Randy Storm, who conducted an investigation.
“We waiting to hear now what they are going to do for us because this is really hard on us as small man trying to make an honest dollar,” said Carter.
Stabroek News contacted Dr. Storm, who confirmed the reports made by the farmers but noted that the situation was not unique to Linden. He said that based on data collected and investigations of the cases reported, all the birds were bought around October 5 from the same retailer in Linden, Fordyce & Sons Feed Shop, and the feed was also acquired from the same location.
“A visit was made to the business place of Mr. Fordyce and I was informed that the chicks and the feed were acquired from the Guyana Stockfeed Limited, that is the only place that he purchases from,” Dr. Storm said.
He said that from the cases reported, there was no above average mortality and the birds seemed healthy and showed no visible signs of sickness.
They were eating and drinking as per normal but feed conversion was very poor and in some cases nonexistent.
“Spacing and ventilation were good in all cases – husbandry was at an acceptable standard but the problem with stunted growth was not resolved,” he said.
Although no scientific studies were done, he is of the opinion that there was a significant lack of protein content in the feed which is usually obtained by adding corn. He said the whitish colour of the feed as opposed to the familiar yellowish appearance may validate his opinion.
Meanwhile, the farmers said that they are looking forward to some form of compensation, since they are finding it very hard to source markets for some of the birds and others cannot be sold, much less plucked because of their very weight.
“Nuff ah dem still looking like two-week baby chicks, you can’t even chance plucking them because that would be a total waste of time,” one of them said.
