Tropical disease

We are located in semi-arid Kenya and have a major problem of chicken diseases that sweep through areas killing huge amounts of chickens. My neighbors are rather poor and the loss of their chickens is pretty problematic and a barrier to their creating a viable business and moving up in the world. What tropical resources do people have for disease prevention other than vaccinations? Eventually I want to take the oodles of experience we are getting and turn it into a picture guide for sustainable farm management for farmers (many illiterate). Resources and advice would be awesome!!! We have currently lost half of our babies even with them on a vaccination schedule, on a diet of black fly larvae, coconut, chicken food, and greens, and on an anti-biotic. There are folk recipes such as boiled quinine root or a mix of chili pepper, quinine, aloe vera and this crazy tuber that I don't know how the show the picture of but you can go here https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152055494493871&set=a.10151988787493871.1073741830.642178870&type=3&theater to see. If anyone has seen any studies on this. Or a good guide on tropical diseases and prevention. Most of the information I find is for commercial production which is not realistic for people like my neighbors who cannot afford to contain their chickens and sanitize everything. Thank you!

Hi Evelyn,

most commercial chicken farmers add some minerals to the chicken feed. They do it because otherwise chickens would not be able to survive as food is not nutrient dense enough to support rapid growth or high egg production and good immune system.

What you could do it to make few soil tests to identify what mineral deficiencies soils in your regions have. If for example are deficient in copper, zinc or boron, selenium or iodine then it would be relatively cheep to add missing minerals to the chicken feed.

Obviously the best solution would be to grow food in mineral balance soil, but that might be more expense (at least initially).