Health Care Management Practices Adopted for Organic Poultry Farming in TSP and Non-TSP Area of Rajasthan

Background: There are a number of densely situated marginal, small as well as large farmers, registered as well as unregistered poultry farms in the various pockets of this region. This region has witnessed a revolutionary history of poultry growth for decades. It seems that there is great potential in rearing of poultry under backyard farming system which is one of the pre-requisite components for organic poultry farming. Keeping these facts and looking the importance and due to limited information regarding organic poultry farming and documentation and validation of ethnoveterinary remedies should be carried out for treatment of poultry disease under organic poultry system. Methods: An analytical study of organic poultry farming was conducted on 240 randomly selected poultry farmers of 16 villages in 08 tehsils of 04 districts of Non-tribal and Tribal areas of southern Rajasthan to identify the different types of health care practices adopted by the respondents in rearing of poultry farming. Result: The data on health management practices revealed that majority of the respondents practice self-treatment of sick birds (43.33 and 41.67%), do not follow vaccination of chicks (85.00 and 92.50%), attack by a predator was the main cause of mortality (60.00 and 61.67%), coryza was the major disease encountered at their farm (55.00 and 60.00%), do not follow deworming programme (79.16 and 90.83%), reported non-availability of veterinary facilities (94.16 and 96.67%) and do not use antibiotics/growth promoters for poultry with (100 and 100%), respectively in Non-TSP and TSP area. The majority of respondents throw the dead birds in the open (85.40 and 91.67%), don’t use lime/quick lime for disinfection in poultry shed (85.84 and 95.84%), culling the birds due to sickness (50.83 and 53.33%), use herbal medicine (85.00 and 79.16%), cleaning of water trough weekly (60.00 and 64.16%), reported 15-20 percent mortality (55.00 and 50.00%) and report monsoon season is major seasonal incidence of disease with 62.50 and 67.50%, respectively in Non-TSP and TSP area.