TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication i
Acknowledge ii
Table of content iii
CHAPTER ONE Introduction
CHAPTER TWO Poultry unit
3.0 Introduction
3.1 What is poultry?
3.2 Uses of poultry
3.3 Management of broiler
3.4 Diseases encountered in Abec farm and their symptoms
3.5 Feeding of birds
CHAPTER THREE Rabbitary unit
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Gestation period
4.2 Weaning
4.3 Feeding and watering
4.4 Health care management
CHAPTER FOUR piggery unit
5.0 Introduction
5.1 Feeding of pigs
5.2 Marketing of pigs
5.2 Weaning
5.2 Health care management
CHAPTER FIVESmall Ruminants (Goat)
6.0 Introduction
6.1 Breed found in Abec farm
6.2 Observation
6.3 Housing for goat
6.4 Feeding
6.5 Health care Management
CHAPTER SIX Feed mill operation
7.0 Introduction
7.1 Identification of feed ingredient and Ration formulation
7.2 Types of equipment
CHAPTER SEVEN Dog unit
8.1 Breeds of dog
8.2 Feeding of dog
8.3 Health management
CHAPTER EIGHT Fishery unit
9.0 Introduction
9.1 Fish species
9.2 Feeding rate
CHAPTER NINE Vertinary unit
10.1 Identification of drugs and vaccine
10.1 Treatment of sick animals
CHAPTER TEN Recommendation
11.1 Recommendation
11.2 Conclusion
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The SIWES program established by federal government of Nigeria which aimed at exposing students to real practical scheme (work) skills expected of them has seriously impacted positively to my knowledge.
This scheme has exposed me to all manner of practical skills in animal production and health which include; poultry production, fishing farming, small ruminant animal production, micro livestock farming, drugs administration and vaccination etc. I was also exposed to entrepreneurship skills on how to market and distribute animal drugs, feeds and farm equipment like battery cage and its installation.
The Archdeacon Brown Education Centre School farm (ABEC FARM) was established by wife of the former governor of Rivers State Dr (Mrs.) Christie Toby the year 2000.
The ultimate goal of the farm is to ensure self-sufficiency in food and industrial raw materials production within a very short time. The multiplier effect of this is to improve the nutritional status of the students in the school since they are not with their parents.
The target is to help the students appreciates the impact of agriculture for them not to be sole dependent on the “Oil Saga” that has blinded the eyes of Rivers citizens not to see opportunity within their surroundings .
The farm has three sections namely;
1. The crop section ABEC/CU/001
2. The livestock section: ABEC/ LU/002
3. The laboratory section ABEC/LA/003
The crop section includes various crops plots which are;
1. Manihot spp cassava plant, water leaf plant, musa parodissacal musa sapieratum banana/ plantain, amarantus cadatus plants, abelmoschus esclentus okra plant commonly known lady fingers
2. Arachie hypogeal groundnut plant, fluted pumpkins Telfara occidentalis maize plants Zea mays
The Livestock section includes;
Poultry unit; this is the unit where some of the Avian species of animal are reared they include Isa Brown, Black Nera, Cockerel(black and white) Broilers, Turkey (local breed and foreign breed) etc. This unit is managed by five attendants including an Animal Health personnel including one I T student
Piggery unit; this unit is responsible for production of pigs. The unit managed by four(4) livestock attendance. The daily management is carried out by those attendants on the basis of shift. Attached to the unit is the IT student while the health management is carried by the Animal health personnel who manage the health aspect of the animal. The building is partitioned into pens for easier management each pen has a drinker, feeder and wallowing trough for wallowing. The system is intensive.
The Micro Livestock Unit
This unit is responsible for the production of micro livestock animal such as rabbit.
Rabbitary unit: this is concern with the production of rabbit the daily management of the unit is carried by One (1) livestock attendant. Attach to the unit are the I.T students.
Commercial Unit: this is the unit where products from different unit i.e. poultry, piggery, micro livestock and ruminants are sold. The product could be sold live (unprocessed) or processed products like chicken, pork meat, egg, vegetable.
This unit is regarded as the revenue source of the farm
Small ruminants: This unit takes care of the goats. The attendant and the IT students on duty manages the day to day activities of the unit which include cleaning the pens and cutting of grasses for them. The management system is intensive.
Dog unit: This unit has the sole mandate of producing security dogs, this unit is managed by one attendant. Attached to the unit is I.T students. The health aspect of the dogs is managed by a Vertinary doctor.
RELEVANCE OF INDUSTRIAL TRANING TO MY AREA OF STUDY
1. It gave me the practical knowledge on how to handle farm animal (Restraining).
2. It gave me the practical knowledge of how the productivities of the farm can be improved through proper management of the farm
3. It exposed me on different breeds of farm animal
4. It gave me the practical knowledge about housing different type of various livestock
5. It gave me the practical knowledge of drug administration in farm animals
CHAPTER TWO
POULTRY UNIT
INTRODUCTION
The poultry industry has many branches. The two main branches are egg and meat production. The other branches include the production of chicks, point of lay pullets or ready to lay bird and of poultry feed. The installation of poultry equipment, the processing and marketing of poultry products. The relationship of these branches to one another is represented in this figure.
The relationship between the main branches of the poultry industry egg and poultry meat are produced primarily for food eggs are also used in various food industries like the manufacturing of confectionery.
WHAT IS POULTRY: Poultry is any bird reared or hunted for a useful purpose . Most of these birds are domesticated and are managed on the same basic principles as the domestic fowl. BREED FOUND IN ABEC FARM include Anak Broiler, Black near, Isa brown, Turkey (local breed and foreign breed), Black cockerel (Haco)
USES OF POULTRY
1. For meat production
2. Generally of income
3. Employment of opportunity
4. It produced manures of crop individual
5. For egg production
MAJOR ACTIVITY CARRIED OUT IN THE POULTRY UNIT
Brooding of day old chick
Inspection of the birds
Sanitation
Feeding of birds and regular supply of drinking water
Regular vaccination of birds
Record keeping.
BOOKING AND BROODING
During the course of the practical I was exposed on how to book day-old chicks at Summed Livestock Services Port Harcourt where we booked one thousand (1000) day old broiler chicks, one hundred(100) day old cockerel, and fifty (50) day old turkey.
On the arrived day, the birds were account is fifty one (51) per cartons. The birds were transported using a farm van, before the arrival of the birds the brooding house were put in place by using newspaper to cover the cemented floor this is to prevent the birds from coming in contact with the cold cemented floor, the stove were put on, together with lantern. The stoves were to generate heat for day old chicks while the lantern to get light for the birds to see. The rooms were warmed before arrival of day-old chicks.
Prior to the following, the brooding house was disinfected 7 days before arrival of the chicks. The brooding house was disinfected using the following disinfectant, izaal, dyforce, kartodum, Dettol etc.
Material Needed For Brooding
Weighing balance
Polythene (nylon)
Feed
Clean water
Old newspapers
Feed trough
Water trough
Writing material for record keeping
On arrival to farm the birds were re-counted again, the weak once were removed, vet glucose and multivitamin (Introvit A) were administered in 10 liters of water to reduce stress on the birds. Feeds were equally given to the birds. The broilers and pullets were brooded separately in different brooding house.
FEEDING OF THE BIRDS
Feeding as the act of giving feed to animal is very important in poultry rearing, reason is because what you give to them determines what they will produce. Some of the feeds giving to birds are; chicks mash, broiler starter, broiler finisher, grower mash, layers mash
Chicks Mash: This is the feed giving to young pullet (cockerel) from day old to 6weeks of age. The feed should contain about 20%crudeprotein and energy of about 2500kcal ME/kg. The feed are served in shallow container so that it will be easy for the birds to eat them. Also good quality water is supplied constantly. The feed I gave them is produced by LIVESTOCK FEEDS below is there Aliment Croissance analysis
PROTEIN 19.0%min
FATS 5.0%max
FIBRE 5.0%min
CALCIUM 1.0%min
AV.PHOUSPHOROUS 0.45%min
MET.ENERGY 2500KCAL/kg min
Chick mash contains all or some of these ingredients
Maize
Sorghum
Cassava
Groundnut cake
Soya cake
Fish meal
Bone meal
Oyster shell
Lysine
Methionine
Salt
Premix
Grower mash: This is the feed giving to pullet from 6-8weeksto 12-14 weeks of age. The protein content is between 14-16% while the energy is between 2400-2600kcal ME/kg, it has higher fiber content than chicks mash, it also contain some or all of above ingredients. Below is the Ailment Croissance Analysis for Grower`s Mash
PROTEIN 15%min
FATS 5.0%max
CALCIUM 1.0%
FIBRE 6.5%max
AV PHOSPHOURUS 0.4%min
MET.ENERGY 2400KCAL/kg
BROILER FINISHER MASH: This is the feed giving to cockerel from 14weeks till they are sold. The energy content is up to 2900KCAL ME/kg while the protein content is about 16%, the feeding trough is deeper compared to previous ones. Below is Aliment Croissance Analyses
PROTEIN 16.0%min
FAT 6.0%max
FIBRE 6.0%max
CALCIUM 1.0%min
AV.PHOSPHORUS 0.45%min
MET. ENERGY 2900%Kcal/Kg min
Quantity of feed to be offered is dependent on the age of the bird. The quantity of feed given to birds at finisher phase is higher compared to that of Grower and Brooding phase, to determine the kilogram of feed that birds will consume were also taught to us.
MEDICATION/VACCINATION SCHEDULE
|
DAY |
WEEK |
MEDICATION |
VACCINATION |
VACCINE |
ROUTE |
|
1 |
1 |
Vet Glucose |
|||
|
2-6 |
1 |
Gendox+Vit |
Oral |
||
|
7 |
1 |
LaSota Ist |
NCDVL |
Oral |
|
|
8-11 |
2 |
Coccidiostat |
Oral |
||
|
14 |
2 |
Gumboro Ist |
IBDV |
Oral |
|
|
18 |
3 |
Mareks |
MDV |
SC |
|
|
21 |
3 |
Lasota 2nd |
NCDVL |
Oral |
|
|
22-25 |
3 |
Anticox |
|||
|
28 |
4 |
Gumboro 2nd |
IBDV |
Oral |
|
|
35 |
5 |
Lasota 3rd |
NCDVL |
Oral |
|
|
37-38 |
5 |
Dicox |
|||
|
42 |
6 |
Gumboro 3rd |
IBDV |
Oral |
|
|
46 |
6 |
Fowl pox |
WWJ |
||
|
49 |
6 |
Fowl Typhoid |
FTV |
SC |
|
|
56 |
8 |
Newcastle |
NCDVK |
IM |
|
|
63 |
9 |
Deworm |
Oral |
||
|
70 |
10 |
E.coli |
ECV |
SC |
|
|
77 |
11 |
Vitamin |
Oral |
||
|
84 |
12 |
Debeak |
|||
|
98 |
14 |
Fowl Typhoid |
FTV |
SC |
|
|
112 |
16 |
Newcastle (Oil base) |
ND+EDS+IB |
IM |
|
|
119 |
17 |
Deworm |
Oral |
DISEASE ENCOUNTER IN ABEC FARM
1. New castle disease
2. Fowl pox disease
3. Coccidiosis disease
4. Infectious bursal disease (Gumboro)
5. Fowl typhoid
6. Mareks disease
7. Fowl cholera
The above diseases are classified into the following:
1. New castle disease, Infectious bursal disease, Mareks disease, and fowl pox are all viral disease.
2. While fowl cholera, fowl typhoid are bacterial disease.
3. Coccidiosisis under protozoa
SYMPTOMS OF NEW CASTLE DISEASE
1. Depression
2. Dripping wings and loss of appetite
3. Twisting of neck
4. Paralysis of legs
5. Reduction in egg production
6. Prevention and control of new castle disease vaccinate at week1, week3, week 5, for pullets but in broiler week 1 and week 3.
New castle disease (NDVK) should administered at week 8 (water base) repeated at week 16 with 3 in 1 (ND+ IB + EDS) 0.5 ml per birds, i/m,
TREATMENT
No treatment because it is a viral disease.
SYMPTOM OF FOWL TYPHOID
1. Substantial losses
2. Persist of farms
3. Sometimes leading to their closure.
SYMPTOM OF FOWL CHOLERA
4. Green diarrhea
Treatment
Broad spectrum antibiotic such as tetracycline
SYMPTOM OF FOWL POX
Fowl pox, it is a viral disease of poultry; it is caused by pox virus from the family poxviridae. Some of the symptoms are proliferative scabs on unfettered skin e.g. combs, eyes. The disease is of two types’ Dry pox and Wet pox.
Treatment
No suitable drug
To prevent secondary bacterial infection give coliquin, Doctril
After giving antibiotic to improve chickens condition give Aminovit
For early and mild infection, vaccinate healthy chickens with fowl pox to prevent spread
SYMPTOMS OF MARCKS DISEASE
It is widespread, highly contagious viral diseases of chicken, some of the symptoms are paralyzes of the wings, legs and neck, loss of body weight, labored respiration and diarrhea. It often causes severe death loss in pullet. To prevent this disease Marex Vaccine is given at day 18 i.e. 3weeks of age. Below is a picture that illustrates that.
SYMPTOM OF INFECTION BURSAL DISEASE
5. Ruffled feathers
6. Slight tremor at onset
7. Loss of appetite and dehydrated
8. Whitish diarrhea frequently develops.
9.
SANITATION
The daily routine activities carried out to prevent harboring of pathogens include washing feed trough and water trough, removing the old foot dip and replacing it with fresh chemical.
Bio-security measures include;
-Feeding of birds should start from the young birds to the aged ones
-Fresh feed and clean water must be provided
-Attendants must put on the farm overalls when attending to the birds
-Sick birds are culled from the healthy ones
-Old and wet wood shavings are always removed so as to prevent the bird not to contact Coccidiosis and worm infestation
-Visitors are not allowed to enter in the pens they stay at the visitor’s room.
-The store where feeds are packed must be free from rodents e.g. rat
-Avoid overcrowding of birds
-Post mortem examination must be carried out far away from the pens
-All mortalities should be burnt or buried immediately far away from the farm reason is to prevent the spread of disease to other birds
SOME SPECIAL OPERATION CARRIED OUT
Debeaking: This is also known as beak trimming, it is the partial removal of the beak of poultry, especially chicken and turkey. In debeaking we can use manual debeaker or electric debeaker, anyone used will also achieve the same purpose. In cockerels, the length of the upper beak distal from the nostrils which remains following trimming should be 2 to 3mm,only have or less of the beak is removed. This is done to prevent cannibalism, it also lessens mash feed wastage.
Culling
This is the removal of bird from a pen as result of disease. Removing the inferior or weak birds reduces cost of production, reduces the risk of others being affected, it also increases the available space for the birds. It is most economical to remove these birds as from the flock immediately they are noticed. This will eliminate feeding birds with poor production.
CHAPTER THREE
RABBITY UNIT
Rabbit is a four footed animal reared in a cage or floor, it is a source of food and wool for industries. It can be feed with forages, household waste with little concentrate. Management practice of rabbit is simple, it can also be reared in backyard. Rabbit has two erect ears and a short tail, with bright eyes and possess hind limb and fore limbs. Rabbit is classified as Pseudo-ruminant because of its ability to digest forages and fiber like sheep, goat and cattle regardless that it does not poses four chamber stomachs (Rumen Reticulum Omasum and Abomasum). Rabbit is a neat animal, the fur colour varies from different breeds. It can be reared by old people and children.
BREEDS OF RABBIT
In the world there are four recognized breeds of rabbits and they varies in size, colour, weight, type of fur coat, ear, and eye etc. Some of the breeds are
New Zealand
Chinchilla
White California
Flemish giant etc.
In ABEC FARM the type of rabbit reared is a crossbreed between chinchilla and New Zealand. It varies in colour and size
HOUSING
The housing system of rabbit in ABEC FARM is Cage System. The cage is built of iron. The door of the cage is at the side.
FEEDING
Feed is very important factor of production; the performance of rabbit depends mainly on quality of feed and other management practices. Feed accounts 60-70% of the total cost of production. The basal diet for rabbit is forage supplement with concentrates to improve the performance of rabbits. Some green leaves feed to rabbit include
1. Sweet potato leave
2. Cocoyam leaf
3. Plantain leaf
4. Pawpaw leaf
5. Garbage
6. Green leaf
Water is very important constitutes of rabbit, water helps in Osmo-regulation, Digestion and utilization of feed. Water was given them using the watering trough. However, the water intake of rabbit depends on several factors these include;
1. Age of rabbit
2. Type of feed given
3. Health status of the rabbit
4. Season
SEXUAL MATURITY
The maturity of the male is around nine (9) month while that of female is 7-8 months. When the doe show signs of heat, it should be taken to the buck for servicing, if the mating was successful the doe will fall. After mating the doe should be returned to her hutch.
GESTATION
Gestation in doe takes 30-32days. A nest should be prepared for her to kindle.
The hutch should be inspected immediately after kindling remove deformed or dead rabbit.
RECORD KEEPING
Keep adequate record of the procurement, stock identification, stock performance, financial and transaction expenses.
COMMON DISEASEOF RABBIT
SKIN MANGE:
This is a disease that is caused by mites. It is characterized by itching at the affected part loss of fur, loss of appetite, reduction in weight etc.
Prevention and control
The affected rabbit should be isolated from the healthy ones; the hutch should be cleaned with disinfectant. Ivermetine injection should be given at the subcutaneous region.
PNEUMONIA
It is a respiratory disease that affect mostly the young ones (kitten), it is characterize by cough, difficulty in breathing; this disease is mostly caused by cold weather.
Prevention and control
Isolate the sick one from the healthy ones, affected rabbits should be given Antibiotics. Good management practice reduces the incidence of the disease occurance.
CHAPTER FOUR
PIGGERY UNIT
Pigs belong to the phylum chordate (vertebrates), they are monogastrics reared primarily for pock, bacon, sausages, lard, (pig fat) etc. Among domestic animal pig are the most prolific, 6-12 piglets in every litter, and they are all fast growing, attain a weight of about 61kg in about 6-8 months’ time when they are slauthered. (Shortest generation interval among meat producing livestock).
STRUCTURES FOUND IN THE PIGGERY UNIT
Water trough: Is a part from the pen, which is constructed for the provision of drinking water.
Feeding trough: this is a place where food are being kept
Wallow system: It is a place where water is being kept always, this is to reduce the body temperature of the pigs.
Grower’s pen: This is a portion where newly weaned pigs are kept.
Breeding pen: Is a portion of the pen where breeders are kept for breeding purpose
Isolation pen: Is a portion where sick pigs are kept.
ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT IN THE PIGGERY UNIT
1. Regular provision of water and feeds
2. Sanitation
3. Medication
4. Record keeping
Regular provision of water and feeds: this is a daily routine activities carried out in the piggery unit, formulated feeds and also left over food from ABEC school are poured in their feeding trough, while water is provided both in water troughs and wallow system
Sanitation: It is a daily routine activity where sweeping and packing of pig dung’s and washing of the water trough, wallow system is carried out.
Medication: This is a practiced carried out to ensure that pigs are healthy, some of them include:
1. Deworming the sows three weeks before farrowing
2. Keep close watch on sows during farrowing without disturbing them
3. To protect piglets from pernicious anemia iron injection is given at the first week of age
Record keeping: This is a practice which ensure that accurate recording of all the practices in the piggery unit are carried out, it also help in the smooth running of the piggery unit without much confusion. Below is an example of breeding record
|
SOW 1 |
SOW 2 |
SOW 3 |
REMARKS |
|
|
Boar Used |
||||
|
Date of matting |
||||
|
Date of farrowing |
||||
|
Litter number |
||||
|
Average weight(piglets) |
CHAPTER FIVE
SMALL RUMINANT UNIT
GOAT UNIT
Goat belong to the genus Capra, It is a ruminant animal. The stomachs are as follows; Rumen, Reticulum Omasum and Abomasum. They are reared for the production of meat, milk, fiber, and also manure for crop propagation.
MAJOR ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT IN GOAT UNIT
1. Cutting of grass
2. Feeding and regular supply of water
3. Sanitation
CUTTING OF GRASS
Early in the morning around 7:30pm we go out to cut grass for them, some of the grasses cut include Elephant grass, Spear grass, gmelina leave etc.
FEEDING AND REGULAR SUPPLY OF WATER
The goats are feed with Elephant grass in the morning and in the evening, the young goats are feed with concentrates in the afternoon, we make sure that there is constant water supplied to the in their water trough.
SIGNS OF HEAT IN GOAT includes;
1. Restlessness
2. Bleating
3. Riding other goat
4. Tail shaking
5. Swollen and reddened vulva
HOUSING FOR GOAT
The types of housing for goat in Abec farm is building with corrugated zinc sheet with dwarf walls.
Wire-gauze is used in covering the remaining parts, there is adequate ventilation, the floor is made of mould, and this is to allow easy absorption of urine.
HEALTHCARE
Goat are regularly dewormed using Ivermetine and administered subcutaneously, multivitamin (B-complex) are equally administered intra-muscular.
SANITATION
Sanitation such as sweeping the floor and packing of the goat dungs was one of the daily activities carried out.
CHAPTER SIX
FEED MILL OPERATION
Feed meal is a building that houses different kinds of machine and device, for grinding grains into finished products.
IMPORTANCE
It is necessary to have a feed meal within a farm because of the following reasons;
1. Feed accessibility
2. Low cost of production
3. The exact nutrient quality and quantity in the feed is known.
FACTORS CONSIDERED BEFORE FORMULATING RATION
The following factors are considered;
1. Age of animal
2. Breed
3. Physiological makeup of the animal
4. Availability of raw material
5. Environment.
MAJORACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT IN THE FEEDMEAL UNIT
1. Crushing and grinding of grains e.g. maize, soya etc
2. Weighing of the crushed materials
3. Maintenance of the processing machines
4. Preservation of feeds
PROCEDURES
Grinding
Grinding it is the reduction in size of grains or other feed materials into smaller particles for proper feed formulation
MATERIALS IN THEGRINDING UNIT
1. Grinding machine (electric and generator powered)
2. Bags
3. Packer
4. Broom etc.
The grinding machine is switch on and allowed to run for few seconds to check if there is fault. The grains and other feed materials were deposited or poured into the hopper of the machine. Bag was tied via the discharging position of the machine, it is located at the under, where the grinded materials was collected
Weighing of feed materials
The grounded feed materials was weighed using a weighing balance and bagged, these procedure is also done when transported feed materials were discharged to the preserving house, also during the formulation and during bagging for selling
There are weighing balances of different sizes
Mixing
There are different types of mixers used but the one in our farm is the horizontal mixer. The work of this machine is to mix all the feed material required in a giving type of feed together for homogeneity
Bagging
It is the putting of all the mixed feed ingredients in a bag and closing it, we use 25kg bag, the picture below
MAINTENANCE OF MACHINES
Cleaning of various parts of the machines and changing the damaged parts
PRECAUTIONS
The following precaution were carried out in the feed meal
1. Care is taken on the operating key panels
2. Ensure of accurate weighing of feed materials before formulation
3. The floor was thoroughly swept after production
4. Care was taken when loosing the extruder part of the machine to avoid injury
CHAPTER SEVEN
DOG UNIT
The dog (Canis familaries) is a domestic animal which is of great importance to humans. A strong relationship that developed between humans and dog made someone commented that “God saw the frailty or weakness of man and gave him the dog”. Dog is described as human’s best friend.
BREEDS OF DOG
There are different breeds of dogs, some of them are; Basenji, German shepherd Rottweiler, Caucasian, but in ABEC the one we have is a Cross Breed. The picture below shows one of the dogs
MAJOR ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT IN THE DOG UNIT
Sanitation
Feeding
Vaccination
Sanitation
Some of the daily activities carried out include sweeping of the floor and packing of the dungs. We also make sure that the floor of the Kennels is dry.
Feeding
Dogs are naturally carnivorous animal, they eat household feeds, in ABEC we fed the dogs leftover foods gotten from the school kitchen. In feeding the puppies special feed are being giving to them, they are canned feed e.g. MY LORD puppies, Dog pedigree etc., the amount giving to them are intensified at 6weeks when they are ready for weaning.
Vaccination and Medication
Vaccination programs have being designed for dogs especially against distemper and rabies. Rabies is one of the most dreaded diseases of dogs reason is because it is a Zoonotic disease, to prevent this we gave them Anti rabies which is giving intramuscular. Distemper is another disease that mostly affects our Exotic breeds to prevent this we gave them; Distemper vaccine which is also giving Intramuscular.
Tick infestation is one of the most troublesome parasites of dogs to prevent this we gave them Ivermetine which is giving subcutaneous
CHAPTER EIGHT
FISHERY UNIT
What is fish farming? Fish farming is the principal form of agriculture. It involves raising fish commercially in pounds or enclosures usually for food. Fish species raised in ABEC farm include catfish and tilapia.
In other, however the potential has not yet been fully realized.
An alternative low cost approach of fish farming is appropriate for many people relying on existing water bodies and natural vegetation and house hold waste. Supplemented with animal protein in the form of maggots or worms and house made supplements for fish feed
Fish species
1. The tilapia families
2. Tilapia nilotica
3. Tilapia aurea
Male grow bigger than females, the major problem in tilapia culturing is their ability to quickly over populate aquatic system. The most widely used technique to eliminate undesirable reproduction is to produce mono-sex population.
There are four techniques to be used to make them convert their energy to feed instead of using it to reproduce. These include:
1. Manual sexing of fingerlings and separation of the sexes after two months. It must be noted that this method is not very effective.
2. Hybridization: This is the crossing of two species within the same family with the aim of producing a superior pro or offspring e.g. clarias species crossed with Heterbranchus species.
The progeny of this crossing is called Heteroclarais breed and it is sterile.
3. Sex reversal by hormones treatment this hormone treatment is the process of administering hormones into the fish that render them sterile e.g (omega sign) methyl testosterone.
4. Chromosome manipulation: a normal being has two Ns (genes) this can be increased to three NS which is sterile through biotechnology.
Claridae (cat fish)
1. Clarias gariepinus clarias lazera and clarias longifiles
2. Heterobranchus bidorsalis stocking density
3. Extensive system to fingerling 1m2
4. Semi- intensive 3-5 fingerling 1m2
5. Intensive system 2 fingerling 1m2
PH
The acidic or alkaline content of pound water is 6.5 to 9 are okay.
FEEDING RATE
The quantity of feed to be given to a pound or a cage each day were normally based on a percentage of the biomass percent (total weight of animal)
Thus, if a pound contains 10,000 fish weighing 10g on average and the recommended feeding rate is 7% per day.
The amount of feed to be given daily is
10,000x 10gx7 = 7,000g (7kg) per day
The percentage of biomass to be feed is not fixed amount. It should decrease as animal grow to reflect their decreasing metabolic rate.
DAILY POUND MANAGEMENT
The first thing I did every morning is to observe the pound. The reason for doing this is to check if there is any mortality, check the water if it is due for removal. After careful observance I feed them.
CAUSES OF OXYGEN DEPLETION
1. Phytoplankton or algae: This is because during the day they undergo
PHOTOSYNTHESIS, releasing oxygen into the water, thereby increasing the oxygen content of the water during the day. However, in the night they absorb oxygen content in the water.
2. ORGANIC MATTER: This include organic manure, leftover feed and faces of fish etc., during decomposition, they make use of dissolved oxygen.
3. MICRO ORGANISMS: This also make use of dissolved oxygen because of this, there is oxygen depletion in the morning. However as soon as the sun comes up there will not be much problem in the water. It is because of this that you see fish come up to the surface of the pound to breathe because it is lacking oxygen at the bottom.
CHAPTER NINE
VERTINARY UNIT
IDENTIFICATION OF ANIMAL DRUGS
I was equally posted to sumed livestock services in Port- Harcourt were I was introduced on how to handle animal vaccine and drugs.
The vaccine includes
NCDVL: Newcastle disease vaccine LaSota
IBDV: Infections bursal disease vaccine
FPV: Fowl pox vaccine
FTV: Fowl typhoid vaccine
ND+ IB+ EDS: Trivalent vaccine
Bivalent vaccine
ND+IB: Newcastles & infection brondi immucox vaccine Coccidiosis.
The picture below shows some of the vaccines
They were preserved in refrigerator
The drugs were classified into the following;
Coccidiosistat For treatment of coccdiosis eg
1. Amprocox
2. Dicox
3. Pantacox
4. Keprocox etc
Antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial infection include;
1. Gentamycin
2. Tetracycline
3. Gendox
CHAPTER TEN
Recommendation
To federal government Nigeria
I recommend that this Sure p that is subsidy re-investment and empowerment program embarked upon by the federal government of Nigeria under His Excellency President should invest massively in agriculture to accommodate the learning population of graduates of agriculture because that is the only way to ensure “food security” in Nigeria and self-dependency among the graduate that are unemployed before.
SIWES ALLOWANCE should be given to student during the period of attachment rather than after the program, if implemented, it will help to solve the student’ minor needs such as feeding and transportation fare.
I wholeheartedly recommend ABEC FARM to any animal science internship student
CONCLUSION
My industrial attachment which lasted for a period of 6 months has been able to help me differentiate between theoretical work and practical. During this period I fully participated in poultry production, swine, rabbit, fish and small ruminant, dogs, feed milling, animal health services. Entrepreneurship in animal sciences where also carried out in poultry production these include transporting of day-old chicks, installation of battery cages, house design.
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