Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr;188(7):e71.
doi: 10.1002/vetr.71. Epub 2021 Jan 28.

Backyard poultry cases in UK small animal practices: Demographics, health conditions and pharmaceutical prescriptions

David A Singleton  1 , Christopher Ball  1 , Cameron Rennie  1 , Charlotte Coxon  2 , Kannan Ganapathy  1 , Phil H Jones  3 , David Welchman  4 , John S P Tulloch  1
Affiliations

Backyard poultry cases in UK small animal practices: Demographics, health conditions and pharmaceutical prescriptions

David A Singleton et al. Vet Rec. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Background: Backyard poultry ownership is of keen interest in the United Kingdom. However, despite this, little is known about veterinary care engagement and outcomes of visits in this group of species.

Methods: This study described and characterised veterinary practice-visiting backyard poultry, utilising electronic health record data supplied by veterinary practices voluntarily participating in the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network between 1st April 2014 and 31st March 2019.

Results: In total, 4424 recorded poultry consultations originating from 197 veterinary practices (352 sites) were summarised. Chicken consultation (n = 3740) peak incidence was in early summer (April-June), relative to all recorded species. More chickens resided in rural (incident rate ratio = 2.5, confidence interval [CI] 2.3-2.6, p <0.001) or less deprived areas. Non-specific clinical signs were commonly recorded (17.6% of chicken consultations, CI 15.9-19.2), as were those indicative of advanced disease. This latter finding was reflected in prescribed management strategies, with euthanasia comprising 29.8% (CI 27.0-32.6) of consultations. Antimicrobials were commonly prescribed (33.0% of consultations, CI 29.8-36.2), 43.8% of which included antimicrobials considered 'highest priority critically important' by the World Health Organisation.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate a need to tailor antimicrobial prescription guidance to the backyard poultry setting. In addition, late presentation of disease, vague clinical descriptions in clinical narratives and high euthanasia rates show that disease identification, management and knowledge of poultry health and welfare among owners and veterinary surgeons can be improved.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Throughout this work, David A. Singleton was funded by BBSRC. Cameron Rennie, David A. Singleton and John S.P. Tulloch were funded by INSPIRE (The Academy of Medical Sciences). The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Monthly consultation rate of chickens presenting to veterinary primary care (black line) and monthly consultation rate of all SAVSNET consultation (blue dashed line). Smoothed trend lines created using a LOESS method
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Mean annual incidence of chickens in veterinary primary care. (Black areas recorded no SAVSNET consultations)
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Mean annual incidence of chickens in veterinary primary care by level of societal deprivation. Smoothed trend line created using a LOESS method
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Co‐presenting clinical signs, summarising clinical signs recorded in 2% of more total chicken consultations, as a percentage of total recorded chicken consultations
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. PFMA . Pet population 2019. 2020. https://www.pfma.org.uk/pet‐population‐2019. Accessed 06 May 2020.
    1. DEFRA, APHA . Poultry (including game birds): registration rules and forms. 2020. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/poultry‐including‐game‐birds‐.... Accessed 23 March 2020.
    1. Irvine RM. A conceptual study of value chain analysis as a tool for assessing a veterinary surveillance system for poultry in Great Britain. Agric Syst. 2015;135:143–58.
    1. Stipkovits L, Kempf I. Mycoplasmoses in poultry. Rev Sci Tech. 1996;15(4):1495–525. Accessed 31 March 2019 - PubMed
    1. APHA . Livestock demographic data group: poultry population report. 2019. http://apha.defra.gov.uk/documents/surveillance/diseases/lddg‐pop‐report.... Accessed 31 March 2019.

Substances