Gastric impaction: an important health and welfare issue of growing ostriches

Ostrich farming serves as a source for meat, feathers, skin, eggs, and oil. In general, ostriches are hardy birds that can resist a wide range of climatic harshness and some diseases. However, musculoskeletal and digestive complications, including the gastric impaction, remain the major cause of mortality. The gastrointestinal impaction alone is responsible for 30 – 46% of spontaneous deaths in growing ostriches. The literature review of 21 publications on this subject has shown that 90% of these incidents happen during first six months of life. The aetiology of this problem is mostly stress and behaviour-related gorging of feed and picking on non-feeding materials such as stone, sand, wood pieces, plastic, glass, and metallic objects. Conservative therapy or surgical approaches show good results with almost 70 to 100% recovery depending upon the clinical presentation and timely diagnosis. Overall, this literature review describes impaction in farmed ostriches, along with diagnosis, treatment, and control and preventive measures. This information will help stakeholders understand the gastrointestinal impaction in ratites to better manage this issue, reduce economic losses, and improve welfare of the birds.

Endoparasic diseases of ostriches in eastern Ukraine

In ostrich farming is difficult to obtain the necessary production and economic results without protection of bird health. We determined the incidence of parasitic ostriches during the period of growing and keeping on specialized eco-zoos. Samples from small and large farms, as well as eco-parks in Kharkiv, Dnepr and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, were examined during 2016- 2020. We performed a parasitological study of 159 samples from three species of ostriches (black African ostrich, Australian common Emu (Dromaius), Rhea). Infestation of ostriches of different ages with two types of nematodes and Eimeria was established. We determoined that the population of ostriches in specialized farms and eco-zoos was infested with nematodes and protozoa with an extensiveness of invasion from 7.7% to 71.4% among adult birds, while young ostriches were infested with Emeria from 20.0% to 44.4%. The largest invasion by helminths and protozoa was observed among black African ostriches in Kharkiv region (41.4%), in Dnepr region it was 33.3%, and in Donetsk it reached 34.1%. Among the livestock of ostriches, there were both mono and mixinvasions. Most often, this was an invasion by Trichostrongylus spp. and Eimeria spp. in African black ostriches, capillaries and Eimeria in Emu. In Kharkiv region, the invasion of Capillaria by Trichostrongylus in African ostriches and Trichostrongylus in Emu were found when they were kept together. Acute and chronic eimeriosis disease can lead to the death of ostriches at the age of 3-4 months.

Which ostrich farmer characteristics predict conservation opportunity?

Environmental sustainability rests on human choice and action. Understanding these may assist in determining the factors that predict or influence an individual’s behaviour towards the environment. In South Africa, approximately 80% of the most threatened vegetation types are in the hands of the private agricultural community. In the Little Karoo, which is situated in the Succulent Karoo biodiversity hotspot, unsustainable land-use practices including ostrich flock breeding threaten this region’s lowland biodiversity. We interviewed ostrich farmers in the Oudtshoorn Basin to quantify latent variables thought to represent components of conservation opportunity: environmental attitude, conservation knowledge, conservation behaviour, and willingness to collaborate with agricultural, environmental and conservation organisations. Three groups of land managers were identified: (1) younger land managers (less than 31 years’ farming experience) with bigger farms (≥2050 ha) who had above-average scores for all four indicators, (2) older farmers (≥31 years’ farming experience) who had above-average scores for environmental attitude and conservation knowledge, average scores for environmental attitude, but low willingness to collaborate, and (3) a large group of younger farmers (less than31 years’ farming experience) with smaller properties (less than2050 ha) who had low to average scores for all four indicators. Farmers in the first two groups represent the best opportunities for conservation, although different strategies would have to be employed to engage them given the current low willingness to collaborate among older farmers. Land managers were more willing to collaborate with agricultural than conservation organisations, pointing to a need to involve agricultural organisations in championing more environmentally sustainable ostrich breeding practices. Significance: Achievement of biodiversity conservation targets requires stewardship in production landscapes outside protected areas, which necessitates identification of farmers who present conservation opportunity, i.e. who are willing and able to participate in conservation. Plant biodiversity in the Little Karoo has been severely degraded through ostrich flock breeding, but ostrich farmers consider their practices to be ecologically sustainable. In the Little Karoo, land managers with more years of farming experience, and younger farmers with larger properties, represented the greatest opportunity for interventions to promote more biodiversity-friendly ostrich farming practices.

Ostrich (Struthio camelus ) Egg Embryonic Death During Artificial Incubation

Intensification of ostrich farming revealed that egg hatchability was remarkably lower than the wild. This review considers the factors leading to, as pertaining to the ostrich, egg and incubator. Ostrich genotype, age, season and congenital problems affect clutch and egg sizes and egg quality- fertility to lead a successful hatch. Egg treatment prior incubation can later reduce hatchability, affected by storage conditions and duration. Most detrimental factors lie in the incubator and hatcher management. Egg correct positioning and turning in the appropriate incubator humidity and temperature are likely to yield high hatch. Variability in egg size, shell quality, pore sizes and numbers govern the water loss and exchange of gases. The hatcher management is important when chicks need intervention. Dead-in-shell embryos, early or late were likely to be affected by all of the above factors plus egg microbial contamination or be merely nutritional.Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(4): 566-578