Determinants of Exotic Chick Morbidity and Mortality Kept in Small-Scale Commercial Chicken Farms in Bahir Dar, Northwest Ethiopia

A longitudinal study was conducted on exotic chicks ‘morbidity and mortality in small-scale chicken farms in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. A total of 10,006 from day-old to 45 days old exotic chicks from five small-scale farms were monitored for clinical health problems. Data on potential risk factors were collected using personal observations, postmortem examination, and laboratory analysis. Survival analysis was employed to model the presumed explanatory variables. The overall crude exotic chicken morbidity and mortality risk rates were 6.58% and 6.4%, respectively. The incidence and risk rate of chicken diseases were spraddling leg (15.08%, 0.99%), cannibalism (7.54%, 0.51%), ascites (6.77%, 0.46%), omphalitis (4.77%, 0.32%), avian salmonellosis (2.46%, 0.19%), and avian mycoplasmosis (1.08%, 0.10%), respectively. Among the risk factors investigated, the experience of an attendant (HR= 2.45, P ≤ 0.001), source of day-old chick (HR= 2.64, P ≤ 0.001), attendant (HR= 0.41, P ≤ 0.001), and breed (HR= 2.35, P≤ 0.001) were found significantly associated with the incidence of crude morbidity and mortality. “Avian salmonellosis and avian Mycoplasma galisepeticum 30.7% and 14.8%, respectively, were confirmed based on serological tests. In conclusion, the morbidity rate and mortality rate of chicks were found to be higher than the economically tolerable level. Therefore, it is advised that further interventions be made against the identified pathogens and risk factors for chicks’ morbidity and mortality that have been discovered.