Further with the reproduction
I want to use this opportunity to wish all the readers of this newsletter a good and healthy 2014. Health for the animals but most of all health for the readers themselves and their loved ones. That 2014 may be a good year in all aspects.
In the last newsletter I pointed out a few things, where we should pay attention to during the reproduction. In the meanwhile we have completed a number of tests with nutritional supplements that can contribute to an optimal rise of the youngster in the bowl. The philosophy behind it is that we have the building blocks necessary for the youngsters to grow and develop optimally as possible in the early grow stages. The results were very encouraging.
In many articles and in the clinic, I often get the question of whether these supplements are necessary. I then give an honest answers and repeat again that if you provide your pigeons with good nutrition with adequate vitamins etc. these additional supplements are not needed. That is the same what the food consultancy offices write about food. If one has a good and varied died, extra vitamins are not necessary. I self however think, there should be written behind it.... "to prevent deficiency diseases". Because there are all these terms based on which one has drawn up. Which record is needed to not get a deficiency disease is the starting point. But this is something completely different than when the question is asked ... "How many vitamins and trace elements are needed to optimally run the body". Just take the example of the well-known vitamin C.
Humans, monkeys and guinea pigs cannot produce this vitamin themselves and must withdraw them from the food supply. To prevent deficiency diseases one should take, according to the guidelines about 50-75 mg per day. However, if we look at the dog for example. When this is getting an infection than the production of the vitamin C increased to many grams per liter of blood.
As a simple tool to fight the infection. But humans have enough with 50-75 mg. That is right. But only to prevent scurvy.
By the way did you know, I was surprised when I heard it, that scurvy is among students again and more then we think. These men and woman are not living a healthy life if they not get to the 50 mg per day. This can mean that a lot of citizens of this country don't get certain essential vitamins and minerals during several days, coasted by the present food patrons. The chain is as week the weakest link. It is not the first time that i use this phrase. Vitamins and trace elements are needed to help support certain enzyme systems in the body. The moment when there is a shortage the system fails. The enzyme can't work proper anymore. The body has to switch to plan B. Most of the times this works for a certain time and then also plan B fails. Etc. In short, the body is not working optimally and health will begin to suffer under it. Many imbalance in the body, homeostasis, is put in motion. Many of these disorders take a long time before they lead to complaints. Complaints are more likely to occur when there are large efforts and / or a high change of diseases infection. I imagine the view that prevention is better than to cure. I do not strive to values who are just above the minimums that are necessary. I strive to optimization of the essential nutrients. In mine opinion this also counts for the pigeon sport. I rapidly said: the pigeon sport is top sport. We could not leaf anything up to change. If we want to succeed on the highest levels, we must also pay attention to the little things. Sometimes I get the feeling that those people who are negative about supplements find it important that people and animals get sick. Indeed, many of the symptoms that disappear when you optimize the vitamin and mineral management are often fought with (expensive) drugs. Vitamins, however, are freely available and costs are relatively low.
So in general, I agree with the proposition that certainly needs covered for vitamins and minerals in balanced nutrition. Thing is that we ensure that the food is good and balanced. For enthusiasts who want to play it safe, we have a supportive preparation for breeding made under the name of 'Breeding Support'
Treatment paratyphoid
On one of the fairs in the early autumn a pigeon breeder overheard me giving an explanation about the approach and treatment of paratyphoid to someone who had problems with this disease, he asked me if I could describe this information in a newsletter. I told him that I already wrote a lot a newsletter with information about paratyphoid. But he insisted that many people in his environment had problems with the disease and they thought to be ready with a simple cure. This last, I disagree. I think that giving antibiotics is only good for the selling antibiotics, but limits the structally contributes to getting the solution of the problem. If someone in my clinic gets to hear that his/her pigeons got infected with the salmonella bacteria, then we will try to convince the pigeon breeder that only giving antibiotics is totally inadequate. Unlike many other bacteria is Salmonella bacillus one of the kind that is hard to fight. This bacteria knows how to entrench themselves on a loft. I often experienced that pigeon breeders cleared there pigeons and after a few months started up again and after 6 to 12 months to have this bacteria again. A good approach to this bacteria is to begin with a thorough disinfection of the loft. For this you can use different products (Halamid, Dettol etc.) We ourselves choose to use Virkon S for quite a time now.
This product, if it is used properly, has a good biocidal action on the bacteria.
Condition is that you create the appropriate dilution of Virkon S and make sure that you give it enough time to let it do his job. In advance the big cleaning should of taken place. Antibiotics certainly also play a role in a event of an outbreak of this bacteria. Note, I am talking about an outbreak of this disease.
A colleague in Belgium had been able to establish that the frequent use of antibiotics, ostensibly to combat the problem, the situation could well worsen. Simply because there always remain stronger bacteria. He has done this research for his final thesis.
As everyone knows, this bacteria is common in pigeons for the absence of disease. The bacteria is then latent. If conditions are favorable enough then the bacteria will grab his chance and strike causing the infection will increase the loft. This may cause that more pigeons are showing exhibit symptoms. It is therefore logical that these favorable conditions for these bacteria should be avoided. Therefore you should prevent overcrowding, by increasing the hygiene. Next to that you should also improve the overall resistance. And that is neglected in many lofts. Indeed, when the season is over, many breeders leave there pigeons be. The necessary care and that should be like the molting period takes its toll by reducing the resistance than the circumstances are favorable for a clinical outbreak of this bacterium. Established the cures after molting from possible contamination with this bacteria. Often even without any research done.
People are doing this for years already and it became normal. I have been asking myself for years, why is that necessary. Because you only slow down the shedding of bacteria. After a good month, the bacteria already detectable in the droppings. People who cures are often very surprised after two months when they have a pigeon with a thick wing or peritonitis resulting from a clinical case of paratyphoid. Usually one is only willing to recognize the limited value of these cures. In the clinic we see that pigeon breeders who have opted for the natural approach which the resistance is raised to a higher level, have practically no patients who suffer from this type disease. Illustrative of this is a pigeon breeders who suffered with nest mortality, during the breeding season, but only wanted to cure if had know for sure that it was paratyphoid. I still advised him to give Bony SGR in the meantime we were waiting for results to come out. The moment when I wanted to tell him the bad news, he told me that all the problems were solved by giving the Bony SGR. Coincidence? Giving a cure was not necessary anymore. When during a droppings examination, that is when you collect droppings for 5 days to check it for the paratyphoid bacteria, the results are positive, then giving is cure is in its place. But we also advise to vaccinate. The only things is, when I writing this, the only vaccine against paratyphoid registered in the Netherlands is not available. We talk about the Colombovac Paratyfus. With this vaccine ually it is recommended to cure during 2 weeks, then vaccinate and then cure again. This is partly to prevent heavy vaccine responses. Do you vaccinate your pigeons on a regular basis then it is not necessary to cure at all.
Currently, there is no Colombovac Paratyfus available. Therefore, we must use the Zoosal T via the so-called cascade control. In this paratyphoid inoculation acts to the live vaccine in contrast to the Colombovac para typhoid vaccine that has been a dead vaccine.
In this live vaccine which only needs to be used once a year, the advice is not to cure after. Because we talk about a live vaccine could the antibiotics kill the bacteria in the vaccine. In a clinical outbreak, it is wise not to confine itself to merely give a course of antibiotics, as some vets stubbornly from dubious reasons seem to be claiming, but also take other measures to heart. Because only this way you can help to reduce the Salmonella problems in a loft. Providing only pure antibiotic cures is forwarding the problem it will not solve the problem.
In summary, a good approach to a Salmonella outbreak comes down to:
1. The proper disinfection of the loft and increase hygiene
2. Giving an antibiotic with sufficient length and with an effective product.
3. Vaccinating the pigeons on a regular basis.
4. Increasing the overall resistance and taking measures to increase the resistance.
Alternative cancer cure
Interesting where the finding in the recent months that we developed a new natural product at our laboratory and found out that it helped against a heavy cancer infection. We used it for 2 days, in the drinking water, and the infection was reduced to a 4 plus to a 0-1 contamination. After using it for 5 days there were no cancer parasites present. Note that they drunk their normal amount of water. Further research should reveal whether this preparation which was originally developed to contribute to the reduction of the cancer infections can contribute to shrink the cancer infections. We will keep you informed.
Good Luck!
Peter Boskamp
