A mysterious illness has ravaged Muscovy flocks along the coast and the Guyana Livestock Development Authority’s (GLDA) hatchery has been closed until further notice because of the increased mortality rate observed, particularly among the ducklings.
Duck farmers say they are suffering tremendously as they have been counting their losses daily.
The illness resulting in the increased mortality among the ducklings remains unknown and farmers, who spoke with the Sunday Stabroek, said they suspect it is an airborne disease.
Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder yesterday told the Sunday Stabroek that the GLDA has taken samples and will be sending these overseas for tests to identify the disease affecting the domestic bird.
He revealed that he learnt of the issue a week ago and said that only ducklings from the Moscovy breed hatched at the hatchery are suffering. “The [other] stocks produced by the GLDA have no problems. We don’t know what is causing this but we are hoping to find an answer soon,” the minister said.
According to a GLDA notice appearing in yesterday’s Guyana Chronicle, its surveillance team has seen an increased mortality rate of the ducklings being hatched at the facility and the GLDA says it has also been told by some farmers that a “similar occurrence was taking place on a number of farms throughout the various regions.”
The GLDA said that the high mortality rates were recorded primarily in the Muscovy breed of ducklings, generally between the ages of two to three weeks. To date, it said that it has not received reports of high mortality in adult Muscovy ducks and other breeds such as Pekin and the Kunshan.
“The ducklings most affected are from the farms that toll hatch at the GLDA hatchery, therefore, as a result of this unusual occurrence, the GLDA is currently conducting an active surveillance exercise throughout all 5 coastal regions and [is] monitoring the breeding flocks of the affected farmers. We are hereby seeking the cooperation of the duck farmers to conduct the surveillance exercise,” the GLDA notice said.
The agency said that it was also working with an overseas reference laboratory to have this “unusual event” addressed as quickly as possible.
“We at the GLDA are aware that the economic impact on the duck farming community is going to be huge and we are working assiduously to have this situation rectified at the earliest opportune time,” the notice said.
Farmers yesterday told the Sunday Stabroek that they first became aware of the issue approximately six weeks ago. Most farmers said that when they first experienced the ducklings dying, they believed it was an issue with their pens and they took the necessary precautions. Nonetheless, the ducklings kept dying and as such, they suspected something was amiss and reported it to the GLDA.
In most cases, large farmers, after hatching the eggs, would retail to smaller farmers and businesses that retail poultry.
Ronald (only name given), a large scale farmer, told this newspaper that about three weeks after receiving ducklings from the hatchery, he recorded his first mortality. He said that in the first instance, 1,300 ducklings died.
“All the farmers are being affected and losing millions but the GLDA hasn’t done anything to help farmers as yet. They don’t have any explanation to give us,” he lamented.
The man explained that he and two other large scale farmers visited the GLDA a few weeks ago and requested that they close the hatchery and investigate the issue but their recommendation was not heeded.
“They continue to collect farmers’ money and hatch the eggs. Now the disease is spreading countrywide. We were telling them what was happening but they didn’t listen to us. They knew what was happening and still continue to hatch eggs for farmers,” he lamented.
According to Ronald, his losses were in the range of $4 million – $5 million and over the past weeks, he lost 6,500 ducklings plus an estimated 1,500 eggs that were waiting to be hatched.
Dump the eggs
“I had to tell them dump the eggs because they couldn’t have identify the problem and customers kept complaining that the ducklings were dying,” he related.
Apart from the hatchery, Ronald said they would have to rely on hens to hatch the eggs. The hatchery is used to meet the demands of the market.
He believes that within the next eight weeks, the market will be hit with a shortage of Muscovy ducks if the issue is not remedied soon.
The farmer also said that he recently secured a new market to export ducks but due to this setback, he is unsure of whether he will be able to supply the exporter.
A Mon Repos farmer, Sherry (only name given), said they observed the ducklings dying in the first week of April and persons to whom they retailed, called complaining.
“One person called and complain after buying from us and when we checked, we observed the same problem. We made complaints to GLDA and they visited the farm and took blood samples from the ducklings,” she related.
“We had to dump at least 5,000 ducklings over the past weeks and like a 100 eggs that were waiting to be hatched. This is a big loss to us,” she said, adding that the hatchery has not been functioning effectively.
“A few months ago, we had some issues with the hatchery and eggs spoiled because [the temperature] was too high. Now we don’t know what the problem is,” she emphasised.
Sherry observed that within the last few years, the GLDA increased the rate for hatchling chicks from $70 to $100.
“We wish if the GLDA would help us to recover some of the losses because it is what we depend on for a living. The Ministry of Agriculture and the minister should look at this problem,” she declared.
Another Mon Repos farmer, who asked not to be named, said that to date, she has lost close to 1,250 ducklings. “Unto this morning, I picked up another 50. It is every morning we are picking up these ducklings within the last four weeks,” she said.
The woman, while speaking to the Sunday Stabroek, observed an additional set of birds dead in a pen at her operation. She informed that a handful of ducks from the batch that died, have survived a little over three weeks.
Another large scale farmer from Fyrish, Berbice, Bibi Haniff, said that for her, the first occurrence of ducklings dying occurred around March 21st.
“When I bought the ducklings and brought it home, within four to five days, 1,000 died and I thought it was because of the pen but it kept happening five weeks in a stretch,” she said.
Like other poultry farms, she said that GLDA officers visited her and carried out an assessment and collected samples for testing but to date, she is still waiting for the results.
She said that after learning of the deaths from other farmers and the GLDA visit, she had to dispose of the eggs waiting to be hatched.
She estimated her losses to be around $5 million. The figure, she said, includes transportation, feed, hatchery cost and labour.
Farmers, who spoke with this newspaper yesterday, explained that the birds would only live between four days to three weeks.
The farmers also said that they have seen mature ducks that were next to the ducklings losing their feathers and this led them to believe that the illness is an airborne disease.
Meantime, the GLDA notice said that the duck farming community can rest assured that the entity has the full support of the Board of Directors and the Ministry of Agriculture and is doing everything possible to have this matter resolved.
It said that it would welcome any information from the farming community in this regard and can be contacted on 220 6556 or 220 6557 or by email at glda1910@gmail.com
