Gangrenous Dermatitis in Poultry

Gangrenous dermatitis (GD) is a serious bacterial disease affecting poultry. It’s often within 24 hours. It sometimes seems to appear almost out of nowhere because suddenly you will have healthy birds and dead birds, but not many birds in between. While GD has been reported in commercial layers, turkeys, and broiler breeders, it usually occurs in fast-growing broilers between 4 and 8 weeks of age.

 Other names;

•  Necrotic dermatitis
• Avian malignant edema
• Gangrenous cellulitis
• Blue wing
• Red leg
• Wing rot

Causes Gangrenous Dermatitis

A wound to the skin is usually the initial culprit that sets a bird up for GD; followed by a secondary bacterial infection with Clostridium prefringens type A, Clostridium septicum, or Staphylococcus aureus (either alone or in combination).

Bacteria involved in the occurrence of GD are usually not able to penetrate intact skin. However, the infectious agent can be ingested if live birds peck at dead birds that have died with the disease or if the litter and feces are contaminated with large numbers of disease-causing bacteria. Milder forms of GD are usually associated with Staphylococcus aureus. When Clostridium is the cause, GD cases are generally much more severe, with higher mortality occurring much more rapidly.

For GD to occur and affect large numbers of birds, generally three things are required:

• Some type of injury to the skin,
• The disease organism (Clostridium or other species) present in sufficient numbers to cause disease, and
• Some type of immune suppression

READ ALSO: Sudden Death Syndrome in Broiler

Treatment and Control of Gangrenous Dermatitis in Poultry

1. Cleaning and disinfection of the pen: Total clean out and disinfection of affected pen will decreased or eliminate gangrenous dermatitis infection on farm, salting of floor has also help in recent time

2. Appropriate litter management

3. Vaccination against immunosuppressive viral disease: immunosuppressive disease such as infectious bursal disease, inclusion body hepatitis, reovirus, reticuloendotheliosis, Marek’s disease, and chick infectious anemia may set a flock up for GD. In addition, mycotoxins (particularly aflatoxin) in the feed can cause immune suppression.

4. Prevention of Trauma: Birds sunjected to stressful situations such as overcrowding, wet litter, or heat stress. Other stressors such as environmental extremes, coccidiosis, nutritional deficiencies, and management issues may also suppress the immune system and lead to GD.

5. Eliminate anything that can cause injury to birds in the pen

6. dispose dead birds immediately.

Conclusion

Prevention should be high on every farmer’s to-do list because managing an outbreak is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive. Because Clostridium and other disease organisms that cause GD are everywhere in the environment, it is unlikely they can be totally eliminated. Therefore, the goal should be to keep their numbers as low as possible. By doing so, fewer birds will be exposed to disease-causing pathogens, and the ones that are exposed will not be exposed to overwhelming numbers of pathogens, decreasing their chances of becoming infected.

Farm hygiene, sound management practices, and ideal litter and house environment conditions is important to lessen the threat of gangrenous dermatitis. 

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