Interactive lesson

Turkey and guinea fowl health, step by step

Interactive lesson: turkeys apart from chickens, blackhead, the morning look, the check in the hand, the urgent call to the vet, parasites, the first-aid kit and withdrawal periods.

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The whole lesson as text

1. Turkeys apart

Turkey health is built before disease strikes, not with medicine afterwards.

Turkeys without chickens — Separate run, separate house, separate tools and boots. It is the only reliable protection against blackhead.
Chicken-free ground — Turkeys don't go on ground where chickens have been in the last 3–4 years, or on a meadow spread with chicken manure.
Quarantine for 30 days — Every new bird spends at least 30 days somewhere else, with its own feeder and drinker. Do your own flock first, then the newcomers.
Feed under a roof — Feeder and drinker under a roof, away from wild birds. Feed in metal bins and no spilt feed, because of rodents.

Why: Biosecurity means: don't let disease into the yard, and if it gets in, don't let it spread. For turkeys this matters more than for any other poultry.

Visitors who keep poultry don't enter the turkey run without clean boots.
Rotate the run and rest the ground; no mud and puddles. Litter is dry and mould-free, 0.6 m² (about 6.5 sq ft) per turkey.

2. Blackhead (histomonosis)

The most important turkey disease on small holdings, and chickens carry it without any signs.

Chickens are the source — The parasite lives inside the eggs of a small caecal worm, which is most often carried by chickens, without any signs.
Soil and earthworms — The eggs reach the soil in droppings and get into earthworms, and stay infectious for several years. A turkey catches it when it pecks soil, droppings or earthworms.
Signs of disease — Sleepy, fluffed up, wings drooping, stands alone with eyes closed. Droppings are sulphur-yellow, yellow-green or frothy.
Vet at once — Separate sick birds, because the disease also spreads through the flock in the droppings. Take a dead bird in a bag, kept cool and not frozen, for a post-mortem.

Why: It is caused by the protozoan Histomonas meleagridis, which damages the caeca and the liver. In the UK, the EU and the US there is currently no approved medicine for it in animals kept for meat.

Guinea fowl and other poultry can carry the worm and the parasite. Keep them away from the turkeys too, or accept the risk and have their droppings tested.
There is no natural cure for histomonosis. Oregano and garlic don't replace keeping turkeys apart from chickens and don't save a sick flock.