Problems and prospects of turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) production in Bangladesh

Abstract

The study investigated the production status, problems and prospects of turkey production in Bangladesh following survey and multistage sampling procedure. Average flock size, weight of a tom and hen were 15.34±2.38, 6.58±0.15 and 2.39±0.06 kg, respectively. Commercial, homemade, and both homemade and commercial feed were used by 21.74, 30.43 and 47.83% farmers, respectively. Both tom and hen attained puberty at 7.22±0.06 months, a hen laid 69.46±0.78 eggs per annum and weight of each egg was 66.13±0.63 g. Fertility and hatchability of eggs were 50±3 and 32±1%, respectively. Male and female ratio maintained 1:4.60±0.17. Main reasons of lower hatchability were low egg fertility, faulty incubation, and both low egg fertility and faulty incubation as per 50.0, 21.7 and 28.3% farmers, respectively. None of the farmers used artificial insemination (AI) except natural breeding. Main advantages of turkey rearing over other poultry species were low disease, high market price, low feeding cost and low mortality according to 41.3, 28.3, 17.4 and 13.1% farmers, respectively. While 36.9% farmers had encountered disease, 80.4% had not used vaccine. An egg, a poult and an adult turkey were sold at BDT 76.2±1.79, 838.5±22.8 and 2587.2±74.8, respectively. In fact, turkey production is still at primitive stage which is characterized by poor housing, feeding, breeding and healthcare practices, so vigorous public extension service, training, research and marketing strategies are immediately needed to improve this sector in Bangladesh.Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.4(2): 77-90, August 2017

Isolation and Characterization of Multidrug-Resistant Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. from Healthy and Diseased Turkeys

“…In rural areas, rearing poultry is a common additional source of income [6]. The challenges of turkey farming include potential outbreaks of infectious and non-infectious diseases, which have been shown to impact more than a third of turkey farmers in Bangladesh [7]. Infections caused by Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp.…”

Growth performance of white, black and bronze color heritage turkeys under semi-intensive system

“…Currently market price of poults is approximately 100 BDT/poult, which is much higher than the commercial layer (25 BDT/chick), broiler (35 BDT/chick), sonali (15 BDT/chick) and duck (30 BDT/duckling). Since the birds are newly introduced in Bangladesh, the farmers are not well aware about various aspects of rearing such as feeding, housing, prevention and disease management, standard growth pattern, feed efficiency, copulation system, incubation of hatching eggs etc (Asaduzzaman et al 2017). In present study, few of the above-mentioned issues such as feed consumption, feed efficiency, growth, disease prevention, general management of birds were focused.…”

Isolation of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli from turkeys in Dinajpur, Bangladesh, and their antibiogram profile

“…Turkey ( Meleagris gallopavo ) production has gained special attention among Bangladesh’s people considering its progressive commercial value and comprehensive mandate for its products [ 1 ]. The reasons behind such consideration are that turkeys have less disease risk, elevated market value, lesser feed cost, and lower mortality than the rest of the poultry species [ 2 ]. In the last few years, the acceptance of turkeys in Bangladesh has increased through triggering alternative protein supplementation, income generation, and poverty alleviation.…”