The Harmattan season brings about major obstacles to your poultry enterprise. Learn how the dry and dusty wind from West Africa can harm your poultry farming.
It can affect your birds’ health and productivity. Find essential tips to mitigate the harmful effects of the Harmattan and safeguard the success of your poultry business.
What is Harmattan?
The harmattan is a dry, cold, and dusty wind that starts blowing from the Sahara Desert in November and continues until March. It causes a loss of income to the livestock industry and the poultry sub-sector.
During this period, poultry birds are affected; strong temperatures, low humidity, and poor ventilation make poultry birds susceptible to harm.
Effects of Harmattan on Your Poultry Birds
Environmental conditions have a significant impact on poultry production. This can lead to more chickens suffering from respiratory disorders, heatstroke, pneumonia, egg cracks, feather damage, and other illnesses.
1. Reduces Productivity
One thing that you should know about wind is that it causes poultry to become stressed. This makes it impossible for them to perform maximally.
Cold and dry weather negatively affects the growth rate of birds, causing them to lose weight, become inactive, and limit egg production.
Additionally, chickens’ feed intake is reduced, resulting in poor welfare conditions that increase mortality rates.
2. Respiratory Disorders
It causes severe health problems, including respiratory disorders. This is so because they can get respiratory tract infections from dust particles, which negatively influence their immune system.
3. Increased Mortality
The harmattan can cause the death of poultry birds due to freezing, dry and very dusty nature. In fact, in the hot harmattan season, the air becomes so dry it is hard to breathe. As a result of the cold and dry weather, the birds cannot keep their body temperature up.
Reducing the Effects of the Harmattan on Your Poultry Birds
1. Prepare for the Harmattan
Get your farm ready for harmattan and be aware of its impact on your poultry business. Spraying water on your poultry pen houses during the hot harmattan season can help prevent diseases in your flock caused by dust particles.
2. Provide Poultry Birds with Good Nutrition
To keep your poultry birds healthy, make sure they have enough clean water and a balanced diet with all the necessary nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
Good nutrition helps the birds build their immunity to harmful diseases. They also maintain the body’s internal temperature and improve its growth rate.
3. Adopt Good Management Practices
To keep your poultry birds comfortable, give them enough food in the morning to generate heat. But avoid feeding them at noon to protect them from the hot weather. Give cold water and enough anti-stress to chickens to maintain their health.
To ensure your poultry remains healthy during harmattan afternoons, it is recommended to utilize sprinklers to wet the roof of their pen. Additionally, installing foggers and fans inside the pen will provide the needed coolness.
4. Insulate Your Poultry Pen
During the harmattan season, it is crucial to ensure that poultry pens have adequate cover to protect them from the significant drop in temperatures.
To protect your pen from cold, dry, and dusty wind, always cover it with materials like plastic sheets, tarpaulin, or nylon.
By so doing, you minimize heat loss and safeguard your pen, providing protection throughout both the morning and night.
5. Manage Losses
Prevent diseases in chickens by protecting them from exposure. Harsh winds can facilitate the spread of diseases through the air.
Conclusion
Poultry farmers in Nigeria often find themselves consumed with worry during the dry seasons due to the infamous harmattan phenomenon.
You must protect birds from the strong wind and dust. Improving poultry production and profitability could be achieved by minimizing the harmful effects of harmattan.
