Aviapp®, the broiler health monitoring platform from Huvepharma®, is a standardised, well-organised, central data collection tool which helps poultry producers manage their flock health more accurately and effectively. The key benefits of Aviapp® are that it is user-friendly with standardised data entry, and it gives instant and clear visualisation of data enabling relevant business analysis.
The platform offers a total of 79 illustrated health parameters, but each individual customer can evaluate and decide independently which parameters to monitor. Many customers use the platform to follow-up on broiler performance in relation to intestinal health and to monitor trends over time.
The goal of Aviapp® is to allow the user to gain insights into the performance of their broiler production. These insights will be individualised and differ between companies depending on the kind of data they enter.
This report is an overview of the coccidiosis and dysbacteriosis status (both considered to have an important impact on intestinal health, performance, and antimicrobial treatments) and trends in broiler production in Europe for the last three years. Data from 8 different EU countries, collected from 2019 - 2021, were included in the evaluation.
Table 1. Number of observations made in Europe from 2019 - 2021
One way of evaluating coccidiosis over time is to look at the prevalence (the percentage of birds in which a certain Eimeria species was diagnosed, regardless of the score). When looking at the evolution of the Eimeria prevalence, E. acervulina showed an increase of 31% from 2019 to 2021. In contrast, E. maxima prevalence was reduced by 6% and E. tenella by 16%. It should be noted, however, that E. maxima (±20% prevalence) and especially E. tenella (±5% prevalence) were present at lower levels than E. acervulina (±30% prevalence). So, in short, more birds were diagnosed with E. acervulina lesions in 2021 compared to 2019.
Figure 1. Yearly average prevalence for each coccidiosis species in Europe
A more in-depth evaluation was also performed, focusing on the severity of the lesions that were diagnosed. For this, the prevalence of the different scores (0, 1, 2, 3, 4) per Eimeria species is depicted in Table 2.
Table 2. Coccidiosis severity prevalence for Europe. All values are expressed in %
The severity of E. acervulina went up as seen in the increase in scores of 2 (Table 2). For E. maxima the main change was a reduction in mild scores (score 1) and a slight increase in the number of birds where no lesions were seen (score 0). E. tenella also showed a slight decrease in mild and moderate scores (1 and 2) and a mild increase in birds with a score of 3.
The average dysbacteriosis and trends for 2019 - 2021 are shown in Table 3 and Figure 2. After a peak in November 2019, a strong reduction followed with slightly lower average scores in 2021.
Table 3. Average dysbacteriosis scores in Europe
Figure 2. Dysbacteriosis trend in Europe (black line) with 95% confidence limits (red lines) for the European benchmark
Dysbacteriosis is most closely influenced by Eimeria species causing more severe epithelial damage in the mid intestine such as E. maxima. The link between E. maxima scores and dysbacteriosis scores can be seen when the numbers are presented in one graph (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Dysbacteriosis trend (blue line) and E. maxima trend (red line) in Europe
Conclusion
After several years of data collection via Aviapp®, a solid benchmark is now available in Europe and for a number of key countries. This benchmark is very valuable for customers since it allows them to evaluate their situation over time, and also compare results with their peers in order to establish where improvements could be achieved.
Aviapp® is a clear example of how Huvepharma® continues to invest in the search for improved solutions to control coccidiosis and how Huvepharma® is the ideal partner for coccidiosis control in Europe.