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Disease is a cause of suffering in animals and humans. We, as humans, protect ourselves from diseases with vaccines, good hygiene and sometimes, with drugs that treat the disease. The same applies to poultry.
Coccidiosis
A particularly unpleasant infection in chickens is coccidiosis. It mainly occurs in birds that are kept on the ground and are in contact with their own manure, and it is caused by a protozoa. Protozoa are microscopic single-cell organisms, which are similar in some respects to bacteria, but can be distinguished by their much larger size. If the coccidia are not controlled, the birds develop an enteritis and can die. It is prevented by including a coccidiostat in the feed that suppresses the protozoa. Without it, the birds could suffer.
New Zealand's Unique Disease-Free Status
The health of New Zealand’s poultry flock has unique and superior health to that found in any other commercial poultry-producing country in the world. New Zealand is free of the three major avian diseases;
- Newcastle's Disease (ND)
- Avian Influenza (AI)
- Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD)
(See Industry Issues/Exotic Diseases for more information about these diseases). Therefore, government quarantine regulations are imposed to protect the superior health status of the national poultry flock and native birds. Consequently, there are no imports of poultry meat or table eggs. This unrivalled environment of low disease is one reason New Zealand has achieved an internationally coveted performance in livestock production parameters such as growth, feed conversion rates and egg production.
The Egg Producers Federation opposes any relaxation of government policy that would allow poultry products into New Zealand that may contain major exotic poultry diseases. The entrance of these unwanted organisms could have a catastrophic effect on the commercial
and indigenous birds in New Zealand.
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