Reducing antibiotics in small-scale poultry farms
Mousumi Sarkar is one of the poultry farmers who received training from Upazila Livestock Officer trained by FAO ECTAD programme and made impressive changes in her farming methods. Living in Abhaynagar upazila under Jashore district of Khulna division, Mousumi started layer farming in 2017 with 300 chickens and now she has 6 000 layers in her farm. The training helped her improve her business and enabled her to make an income through the farm.
Family members also help her with the chicken farm as well as the trade at the farmer’s market. “I take care of my chicken like my own children. I clean their drinkers, feeders and shed on regular basis so that my chicken stay healthy. I don’t allow anyone from outside to enter the farm. I am so proud that my poultry farm is free from diseases. I practice what I learned in the trainings, so I don’t use any medicine or antibiotics for the chicken in my farm” says Mousumi.
FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animals Diseases (ECTAD) programme is supporting the farmers in Bangladesh to reduce using antibiotics in the small-scale poultry farms by improving biosecurity practices through Upazila to Community (U2C) initiative.