Raising More Game Bird Chicks Without Antibiotics and With Pine Shavings
The government’s urgent drive to reduce the use of antibiotics in treating farm animals is posing a major problem to game bird rearing businesses and gamekeepers. We believe that Stockmax naturally antibacterial pine shavings may offer at least part of the answer.
Until now, it has been common practice for rearers and vets to use antibiotics such as Aurofac, Dengard and Tylan in feed as a blanket preventative ‘insurance policy’ against the infections that can either kill young game bird chicks or damage their development.
But with the drastic increase in antibiotic resistance in both people and animals in the UK, this practice has got to stop, and many game bird rearers are worried about the losses they may incur when they cannot use antibiotics to safeguard their animals against disease.
Veterinary practices that offer specalist game chick advice are suggesting that one key approach that rearers can take to replace the use of antibiotics is to improve the environment and management of rearing pens – to make them naturally healthier and safer for the chicks.
This echoes the advice in the Animal Welfare Act 2006, and Government Codes of Practice for the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes 2009:
Correct husbandry and management should always be in place and will reduce the need for medication and treatment
Providing a healthy bedding is a fundamental factor in raising healthy game bird chicks, and a growing number of game bird farmers and gamekeepers are discovering that Stockmax pine shavings help them raise more healthy chicks with far less need for antibiotics.
How Stockmax helps
The feedback we have received indicates that Stockmax works in three main ways:
- Stockmax shavings are made from 100% pine timber, and pine has been scientifically proved to kill most harmful bacteria. It offers natural antibacterial protection without the need for antibiotics.
- A damp or wet bed or litter warmed by heat lamps is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria and disease. Stockmax creates a dry bed or litter that drains moisture away from the surface. It doesn’t ‘mulch’ and keeps the bed dry for longer.
- Stockmax shavings are cut larger than most, and that helps prevent chicks from trying to eat them and choking on them.
Effective and Cost Effective
In the urgent drive to reduce the use of antibiotics in rearing young game birds, Stockmax pine shavings are proving to be the game farmer’s and gamekeeper’s best friend. Stockmax is proving to be highly effective in helping to rear more healthy chicks without antibiotics, and that makes it not only effective but cost effective too – a left and right saving on the high cost of antibiotics and a saving on chicks that would otherwise be lost in the rearing pens.
