Fowl pox is a deadly disease for chickens. Chicken can get affected by this disease for different reasons. But when fowl pox affects the chicken, several questions come to the flock owner’s mind. One such question is, “can you eat eggs from chickens with fowl pox?”
The answer depends on how you treat your chicken to prevent fowl pox. If you follow the preventive instruction and do not use any medicine, you can eat the eggs. In general, fowl pox doesn’t contaminate or pass through eggs. Therefore the eggs are safe to eat.
But if you are using medicine to treat your chicken with fowl pox, we recommend you not to eat the eggs. Medicine has a high chance of contamination with eggs. Therefore, when giving medicine, you must follow a particular egg withdrawal period.
Anyway, now we will explain all the details about this topic. So, continually keep reading till the end. Happy reading!
What Is Fowl Pox?
Fowl pox in chickens, also known as Avipoxvirus, is a viral condition in your flock. Due to the long incubation period, fowl pox spreads slowly within your chicken. However, fowl pox is not awful nor a notifiable disease. But to prevent it, careful management is a must.
Fowl pox is a viral infection. Therefore antibiotics won’t work for fowl pox as it’s not bacterial. Whenever your birds suffer from this disease, they need supportive care instead of antibiotics. If you experience your bird is not eating or drinking less, you must take care of them.
Keep your affected chicken warm. If you can give some hardboiled egg yolk to eat the affected chicken, it will help to fight against the pox.
What Are The Common Reasons For Fowl Pox?
Fowl pox in layers and broilers is very common. It’s a viral disease. Once it affects one bird, it soon spreads throughout the flock. The common causes of fowl pox outbreaks among the poultry flock are:
- CAV or Chicken Anemia Virus in chicks
- Vaccine’s long duration or wrong route
- Pecking in layers
- Standing water for mosquitoes production
- Combination of fowl pox and REO virus various in nature
- Poor beak trimming
- Due to flightiness, abrasions caused by growers
- 30 PC genetic in nature
- The vegetation presence around the farm
- Mosquitoes bites extensively spread this disease
What Are The Symptoms Of Fowl Pox?
Whenever your chickens suffer from fowl pox, they will show some common signs. Those signs are:
- Birds will be fluffed up, quiet and uncomfortable
- The chicken will stop drinking or eating
- Breathing difficulty and other respiratory symptoms
- Stop egg production
- Depressed chicken
- Sores on un-feathered areas
- Flat yellow lesions in the chicken’s mouth
- Black and ashy round scabs on the comb that will remain forever
As soon as you have any of these symptoms in one or more of your chickens, we recommend you isolate them immediately. Otherwise, it will affect the entire flock.
Can You Eat Eggs From Chickens With Fowl Pox?
Many backyard chicken keepers become curious to know if fowl pox is deadly. Or if the chicken is diseased, are the eggs from these chickens safe to eat? However, whether the egg is safe to eat or not, it depends on many factors.
Some recommend eating the eggs even if your chicken has fowl pox. But some recommend you not to eat the eggs if you give your chicken antibiotics to prevent fowl pox. Since your chicken is taking antibiotics, therefore eating their eggs is not safe.
When your chickens are on antibiotic treatment for fowl pox or any other disease, we recommend you not to eat the eggs. Eggs have a particular withdrawal period depending on the antibiotic types.
The vet will prescribe you the antibiotic and withdrawal periods details. After that particular withdrawal period, you can safely consume eggs.
One good news is virus antibiotics are not required to prevent fowl pox unless there is a secondary infection. It’s clear that you don’t need to use antibiotics to prevent it. So, you can eat eggs even if your birds are affected by fowl pox.
In general, most diseases don’t go into your chicken’s egg. But still, the flock owners are curious to know how to determine whether the egg is ok. Unless you medicate your chicken, what eggs they will lay will be safe to eat. But when you medicate your chicken, there is a high chance that the medicine will pass into the eggs.
How To Prevent Fowl Pox In Chicken?
Sometimes the medicine can be sensitive and can enter your body through eggs. Using medicine to prevent fowl pox in chickens dramatically increases the risk of egg contamination. But, even if your chicken suffers from fowl pox disease, you can eat the eggs. Fowl pox won’t affect humans.
Therefore, getting fowl pox from your birds through the eggs is impossible. Mosquitoes are the bearer of fowl pox. Fowl pox is deadly for very weak/old or very young chicks.
When the sores develop in the mouth of your chicken, it’s the most dangerous thing. At this point, your chicken will grow weaker as it can’t eat. If you ever experience your chicken suffering from this disease, you must take the necessary actions.
- Keep the strength of your chicken by giving them the necessary electrolytes or vitamins in the water.
- The other birds can peck on the birds with bad sores. Therefore keep the affected bird separate from the flock.
- Treat the bad sores of your chicken by using iodine, even if the sores are in your bird’s mouth.
- Before dabbing the sore with iodine, you must remove the sore’s scab or crust. Using the dry cotton swab, remove it.
- Vaccine for fowl pox is also available. But once the disease affects your birds, then the vaccine won’t work.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does fowl pox last in chickens?
4-10 days is the incubation period of fowl pox. After 5-8 days of infection, the nodules appear. And in simple cases, the scabs clear in 3-4 weeks.
Can you get fowl pox from chickens?
Fowl pox is indeed a viral infection that is primarily common in chickens. But humans can’t get fowl pox from chicken as it is not transmissible.
Should you quarantine a chicken with fowl pox?
If any chicken in your flock is affected by fowl pox, it’s essential to keep them in quarantine. Otherwise, the disease will spread quickly within the flock. Keep your chicken within quarantine to keep the flock healthy for at least 30 days.
End Note
Hopefully, after going through this guide, you have gotten the answer to your question, “can you eat eggs from chickens with fowl pox?” You can eat eggs from chicken with fowl pox if you don’t give any medicine to your chicken.
But if the fowl pox outspreads and you use the medicine to prevent it, you must maintain the egg withdrawal period. However, if now you have any further queries, you can comment. Soon our expert will answer you.
