Vaccination

Vaccination plays a crucial role in the management of the health of your poultry flock by preventing a number of poultry diseases. Vaccination is a process in which the healthy chickens are infected in a controlled way with a dead or weakened pathogen.

Vaccination Schedule

The table below details the vaccination regime that we have been using

Age Vaccination Mode of Delivery Notes
1 day Marek's Disease Injection
Newcastle Drop in the eye
7 days Newcastle/IB Drop in the eye IB - infectious bronchitis
14 days Gumboro Drop in the eye
21 days Gumboro Drop in the eye
6 weeks Newcastle/IB Drop in the eye IB - infectious bronchitis
8 weeks Fowl Typhoid Intra-muscular injection
10 weeks Fowl pox Stab in the wing
12 weeks Newcastle/IB Drop in the eye

NOTES: While the mode of delivery for drop in the eye vaccines can also be added to water, we do not recommend this approach because:

  1. The vaccines are temperature sensitive so may degrade as the morning goes
  2. The water may include chemicals like chlorine which reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine
  3. Not all birds may drink the water at the same time, so may not get the vaccine

Vaccination Schedule for Adult Birds

Once chicken reach 12 weeks, the mode of vaccination now changes to proactive disease management by boosting the immunity on the regular basis. The approach we have been using monthly is as follows

Day of Month Activity Mode of Delivery Notes
1 Deworming Added to water Every 3rd month a different dewormer is used to reduce resistance
4 Newcastle Vaccination Drop in the eye Every other month a Newcastle/IB vaccination is done
6 Vitamin boost Added to water This is done for 5 days with the medication usually being added to the birds drinking water especially in the morning

NOTES: For water based drugs, we add the drugs to the water given in the morning before feed when the chickens are both hungry and thirsty, but do not add it to any afternoon water as this could be wasted