‘Prevention is better than cure’ and that is certainly the case when trying to control mycoplasma infections. Many mycoplasma infections are transmitted vertically from the parents to the chicks. The infection may take some time to develop into clinical disease, often 3-4 weeks in broilers, therefore strategically applied treatments usually in the first and fourth week often prevents clinical development of the disease.
The aim is to apply preventive or early treatment before clinical signs and pathological lesions develop. Once clinical signs have developed, performance is being affected and once pathological lesions have developed it is harder for the antimicrobials to penetrate and destroy the mycoplasma. In addition, especially in the case of mycoplasma infections, the immune defence system may be damaged and the body finds it harder to fight the infection, hence it becomes a chronic respiratory disease.
The frequency of application of ‘early treatments’, depends on the history of the flock’s production. In broiler production they are under intensive production so every 3 weeks is necessary, in replacement pullets it may be every 4-6 weeks or just prior to the stress periods of placement, point of lay and peak laying. In breeding birds monthly applications of tiamulin are very useful to keep infection levels low in the hen and also, as tiamulin is passed into the egg and levels above the MICs for M. gallisepticum can be found for several days after treatment, there is additional protection of the developing chick.
|
Rationale for prevention with early treatment |
|
|
|
Tiamutin can be used for treatment, but it must be remembered that once clinical signs have developed, there are likely to be secondary infections present, commonly E. coli, and additional medication to control them, such as the tetracyclines, should also be considered.
Tiamutin – your first choice therapy for mycoplasmas
Tiamutin + Tetracyclines for mixed infections
| 
