On episode twenty-one of The Turkey Talkshow, Dr. Mohamed El-Gazzar, Associate Professor and Poultry Diagnostician and Outreach Veterinarian at Iowa State University and turkey growers, Josh and Stephanie Miller join us to gain a better understanding of bacterial diseases. We explore the differences between primary and secondary infections, as well as how treatment strategies vary depending on the type of pathogen.
On episode twenty-one of The Turkey Talkshow, Dr. Mohamed El-Gazzar, Associate Professor and Poultry Diagnostician and Outreach Veterinarian at Iowa State University and turkey growers, Josh and Stephanie Miller join us to gain a better understanding of bacterial diseases. We explore the differences between primary and secondary infections, as well as how treatment strategies vary depending on the type of pathogen.
Joining Sheila and Gretta today, is Dr. Mohamed El-Gazzar. He is originally from Egypt, and earned his Veterinary degree and worked in Egypt's poultry industry for several years. In 2008, he came to the US at got his Masters degree in Avian Medicine from the University of Georgia, and later his PhD from The Ohio State University. He became a faculty member at OSU for three years, until 2018 when he got offered a job at Iowa State University and has been there ever since. His favorite part is doing outreach work and communicating with and helping everyone involved in the poultry industry.
We also have guests Josh and Stephanie Miller, who are turkey farmers. They have had their own operation since 2014, when they got the opportunity to build two Grower Barns and one Brooder Barn. Stephanie grew up and worked on her families turkey farm and had lots of knowledge when they started, but Josh had little experience before starting their own operation and had to learn a lot about the business.
The goal of this episode is to help farmers have a better understanding of diseases and how to identify them in their own flocks. The goal of any disease is to control, prevent, and eradicate it. Our world is full of microorganisms, but there are two main types that do cause problems: primary pathogens and secondary pathogens. Primary pathogens are microorganisms that don't need any other help to enter a host. It can enter a perfectly healthy host and cause problems. It is simple and straight-forward, we know what it is and can figure how to treat it. But secondary pathogens are where more problems arise in a population. These are microorganisms that first need a primary pathogen to enter a host, then the secondary pathogen can attack the host. Secondary pathogens can be already in the host, or waiting in there environment around them, it needs that predisposing factor to allow it to enter an organism. The problem here is that, to treat a secondary pathogen, you have to first identify and root cause (primary pathogen). This can be difficult to do and difficult to treat. You have to first address the root cause, then you can address the secondary pathogen.
According to Dr. El-Gazzar, first you need to identify whether their is a primary or secondary pathogen in your flock, then identify the root cause of the disease, then decide how we prevent, control, and eradicate that disease, not only in your flock, but also for future flocks in your barn, your neighbors, and eventually your state and across the nation. We can't only treat symptoms we are seeing, because those disease are still being allowed into a host when doing that. You have to find the root cause to actually get rid of a disease and to stop seeing those secondary infections come into your flocks.
Dr. El-Gazzar explains how predisposing factors can be anything. Another disease, water and feed intake problems, nutritional deficiencies, environmental deficiencies, problems at hatchery's, etc. It is important to be honest and communicate what you think the problem is in your flock with your veterinarian and diagnostician. It is okay to recognize if their if that problem is something within your operation, because it will help to treat the disease best. It is also very important to address the problem as soon as you see an symptom or issue to stop the disease earlier.
Dr. El-Gazzar also discusses the research being done on ORT and RIO diseases. These two significant pathogens because we are aren't sure if they are primary or secondary pathogens. Research is being done to correctly classify them, along with where the disease comes from and how they get in contact with a host.
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