Fighting Dermatitis in Chickens: A Grower Spotlight

Farming is an act of faith.

“My name is Shannon, and this is my Southland story.” He farms in Comer, Georgia, with his wife and two sons: about 42 acres, cattle, and five poultry houses. Both of his grandfathers farmed. Grandfather Hayes had an Allis-Chalmers tractor dealership — that’s where Shanon learned to run a tractor and a plow.

After he and his wife married, they looked at farms and the timing wasn’t right. He felt called to ministry and pastored instead. Years later, driving the country road he still lives on, he saw a sign on this place.

“I pulled in thinking that there’s no way this could all work out. Just a few months later, I was a poultry farm.”

The step was not small:

I invested my family farm that my grandfather gave me. I put that whole farm up for collateral for this. I risked all of my inheritance. A farm my grandfather gave me to be able to purchase this, and so I put it all up for it. So it was a huge step of faith.

“Farming is almost an act of faith,” he says. “You’re just taking a chance on producing a good chicken. We put those chickens out in that chicken house that they’re going to grow and they’re going to live and come out a good way, and everything’s going to work out good.”

Has his faith been tested as a farmer? “Sure it has.”

Dead birds can kill a farm.

December 2014. About the fifth week of a flock, almost-full-grown birds started dying by the hundreds. Nobody had diagnosed it yet. They finished that flock, evaluated, and grew another. That one rocked along fine — until week five, when the same thing happened.

They finally determined it was dermatitis in the house. People said try one more flock. He was a young poultry farmer who had never seen anything like it. He said okay. The same thing happened again.

There’s no way. I can’t raise one more flock in this house. We cannot financially make it. I can’t mentally make it. Something’s got to give here. I was at panic mode.

The three dermatitis flocks ran about 8%, 7%, and 10% mortality — all losing big birds. He had Allen Reynolds from Southland Organics on the phone about treating the floor. They cleaned out down to the dirt and treated heavily with Litter Life.

The next flock, around day 35, he found a few birds that looked like they might have something. The next morning, everything was clear. Mortality on that flock was right at 2%. “I went from almost 10 percent to 2 percent mortality rate after treating the floors and cleaning out the house.”

People had told him dermatitis is in the litter and in the dirt — that you can never really get it out of a house once it’s had it. After Litter Life, 15 months with no recurrence.

“I believe the Litter Life product helped. Southland has been exceptional. Getting the product to me when I need the product… I need it, I got it, and it’s taken care of my birds and the farm.”

The man he bought the farm from had told him there would be days he’d ask why he ever looked at a chicken farm, and other days he’d go out there and wouldn’t do anything different. “And it has come true.” After about ten years of a thriving poultry operation, Shanon returned to his original calling of ministry.

Maybe you know this story because you’ve lived it — or you’re in the middle of it. If you need help, connect with Allen Reynolds at 800-608-3755 or allen@southlandorganics.com.

What is dermatitis?

Dermatitis in chickens often results from other diseases that produce immunosuppressive agents, like infectious bursal disease. It’s a secondary bacterial infection, and its first signs include acute increase in mortality and its characteristic gross lesions.

Gangrenous dermatitis is also known as gas edema disease, avian malignant edema, gangrenous cellulitis, Wing Rot, Red Leg, Clostridial Myonecrosis and Blue Wing Disease.

Difference between gangrenous dermatitis and necrotic dermatitis

Gangrenous dermatitis in poultry is a clinical disease caused by the bacterium, Clostridium and Staph (Staphylococcus aureus). Farmers experience a rapid onset of skin lesions and acute mortality as reactions to Gangrenous dermatitis.

Necrotic dermatitis is actually the umbrella term for all versions of dermatitis, gangrenous dermatitis included. It is more general and can be caused by many different factors. What makes gangrenous dermatitis different is that it’s caused by a bacterial or fungal infection specifically.

The Fallacy of Disinfection

‘Nature abhors a vacuum’ is a well-known statement in some circles. This idiom is used to express the idea that empty or unfilled spaces are unnatural, as they go against the laws of nature and physics. Disinfectants are designed to create biological vacuums.

Disinfectants are only good for a very short period of time. They kill the majority of the microbes on surfaces where they are applied, but that killing power may only be good for a few minutes. After that, you are left with an area completely devoid of any kind of life. Eventually, something will move in to fill that space, and that something will be whatever can migrate from a nearby, non-disinfected area.

It stands to reason that if there is an outbreak of Gangrenous dermatitis in a poultry house, then the disease will be in adjacent areas or the depth of the litter. These areas will not be affected by the application of disinfectants. Therefore the result of the disinfection will be the extermination of both harmful and beneficial bacteria. Without a repopulation strategy of beneficial bacteria, disinfection has made the situation worse, as the dangerous Gangrenous dermatitis is now unchallenged and has free reign.

Most treatment protocols call for broad-spectrum antibiotics. This mentality and application have led many scientists and doctors outside of the poultry industry to become alarmed, and they have begun to pressure government involvement in the regulation of the overuse of antibiotics. Other protocols call for total cleanout and disinfection of affected poultry houses. Full cleanout and disinfection do little for the farmers, as they are forced to absorb costs and fund an ineffective solution.

Fighting Dermatitis in Chickens

Litter Life is our organic poultry litter treatment. The bacterial strains involved for Litter Life is excellent at breaking biofilm and oxygenating targeted areas. This means it can fight litter moisture and dry wet litter. Additionally, there are 14 indigenous bacterial species in both blends that have proven powerful in competitive exclusion. This combination provides unrivaled action against poultry disease that can impact broiler chickens, especially those caused by Clostridium and Staphylococcus aureus.

By leveraging organic acids with low molecular weight, Litter Life can penetrate biofilms created by Clostridium, Staphylococcus aureus and other bacteria. Clostridium, the dangerous bacteria that causes Gangrenous dermatitis, is anaerobic, meaning it does not survive in the presence of oxygen. Since it is oxygen sensitive, Clostridium encapsulates its environment with a biofilm for protection. Litter Life penetrates this biofilm and exposes the Clostridium. Once exposed, the disease-causing bacteria have little chance to wreak havoc on poultry.

Additionally, Litter Life brings 14 beneficial bacterial strains to the party. Suddenly the playing field is leveled, and a war for resources takes place. Litter Life controls the harmful bacteria, and we have homeostasis–a return to the normal.

Litter Life is an incredibly efficient and more intelligent approach to battling Gangrenous dermatitis. As justifiable pressure to eliminate growth-promoting and preventative antibiotic use increases, other methods of controlling disease and getting results are imperative. A comprehensive program for litter management that complies with the laws of nature makes the most sense.

One note we’d like to make about Litter Life is that it is NOT a veterinary medicine. It can not be used as a medicine to treat dermatitis in chickens, but it tackles gangrenous dermatitis’ contributing factors so that the disease does not occur in the first place. If it does occur Litter Life can outcompete the harmful bacteria that cause dermatitis and other diseases in your house’s litter.

Becoming #1

After using Litter Life to help him defeat dermatitis, Shanon used Big Ole Bird, our poultry probiotic, to bring him to the #1 grower in his area. Learn more about Big Ole Bird here.

Check out our Grower Spotlight on mom, wife, wedding venue owner, and poultry grower, Tiffany Hodges on another Grower Spotlight.

Learn more about how Litter Life fights dermatitis on our blog post Defeating Dermatitis.