CURRENT INTENSIVE POULTRY PRODUCTION SITUATION IN THE HOT HUMID TROPICAL ENVIRONMENT OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The hot humid tropical climate of southern Nigeria with its prevailing high ambient temperature and relative humidity imposes a lot of stress on commercial poultry production dominated by small–scale producers who practice mostly mixed farming of broilers and layers in deep litter pens.Many of these poultry farms are however finding it increasingly difficult to survive because of high cost of inputs, such as feeds and feed raw materials. In addition,the hot humid climate exerts continuous heat stress on the high producing imported breeds. However, most small-scale farms still utilize commercially produced feeds in feeding their birds, while the large-scale farms produce their feeds in-house.The major diseases prevalent in the farms are Newcastle, Gomboro, fowl pox, chronic respiratory diseases and coccidiosis.Poultry production remains attractive in the region because birds are able to adapt easily, have low economic value, rapid generation time and high rate of productivity.