ASSESSMENT OF FARMER’S USAGE OF ANTIBIOTICS FOR POULTRY PRODUCTION IN SOKOTO METROPOLIS, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed farmers’ usage of antibiotics for chicken production in Sokoto metropolis. Thirty (30) farmers were purposively sampled and administered a structured questionnaire and data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics. The results revealed that a majority (46%) of the respondents raised layer birds and very few (3%) raised both layer and broiler birds. The result also showed that most (73.0%) farmers had 2-8 years of experience and only a few (3.3%) had more than 15years and above. It also revealed that 40.0% had birds between 1,001-3,000, and 37.0% had birds of less than 1,000, and few (13.0%) had birds above 5,000. it also revealed that all (100.0%) farmers had administered drugs and vaccine at a point and a majority (70.0%) used Oxytetracycline as one of the types of drugs. 43.0% of the respondents used antibiotics for health management only, while 20.0% used antibiotics for growth improvement and 37.0% of the respondents used antibiotics for both purposes. Survey results showed that a majority (87.0%) had never produced birds without antibiotics