Chief Executive Officer, Dr Dindial Permaul, and two senior veterinarians of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA), conducted an unannounced inspection of several hatcheries along the East Bank Demerara and Soesdyke highways on Monday following complaints of poor quality chicks. The team visited the Fung-A-Fat, Didco, Edun, Craig, Lall Beharry, Friendship and Bounty hatcheries.
Staff cooperated fully, provided access and information regarding questions posed on vaccination, sanitisation, veterinary pharmaceuticals and general bio-security. The Guyana Stock Feed Ltd. denied the team access, and the GLDA stated that action will be pursued.
Under the Animal Health Law passed in Parliament recently, failure to provide access and information to an authorised officer constitutes an offence.
The team’s examination showed that the hatcheries are pursuing their vaccination programmes regarding layers and broilers; and at the time of the visit, no chicks were being hatched. Consequently, it was not possible to witness the vaccination of chicks. However, information is being shared pertaining to hatch days; on these days, GLDA said, its staff will pursue random inspection visits.
GLDA, a dedicated semi-autonomous body, has responsibility for all livestock matters under its parent legislation; hence, in the interest of efficient poultry production and to strengthen its capacity to produce safe and wholesome chicken meat, the authority has begun a high- level, random series of inspections of hatcheries designed to check on bio-security measures, give technical advice to hatchery owners and operators, and to witness compliance with applicable regulations regarding vaccinations and laws related to animal health.
Guyana is self-sufficient in chicken and table eggs, and according to the GLDA, “any relaxation of existing regulations and laws can only serve to whittle away these gains. Further, our food security becomes compromised and our expressed resolve to be an exporter of livestock products can enter the doldrums.”
Virtually all chicks are produced from imported eggs brought in either by air or by ship, and hatched by a small number of privately run hatcheries, almost exclusively located in Demerara. The number of eggs that hatch for every hundred is a well established number with a small tolerance, as long as the variables that control hatchability are well regulated in an efficiently run hatchery, the Authority said.

Newly emerged chicks of the broiler or the layer type suffer from a number of diseases, many of which cause death or poor weight gain in the production cycle. Over the years, the poultry industry has developed a number of ways of controlling these diseases. One such strategy is vaccination.
In Guyana’s case, owners and operators of hatcheries are by law compelled to vaccinate against diseases such as Inclusion Body Hepatitis/ Hydropericardium Syndrome (HH), Infectious Bursal Disease and Mareks.
HH, for many years, when it was first found in Guyana, had a devastating mortality rate by as much as 70% among broiler birds. This prompted the promulgation of the Sale of Chicks Regulations in February 2008.