America's North Shore Journal

Charles Rus­sell, a mem­ber of the U.S. State Depart­ment Embed­ded Provin­cial Recon­struc­tion Team and an agri­cul­tural advi­sor, tends to Iraqi chicks at the Mah­mudiyah Poul­try Asso­ci­a­tion dur­ing an EPRT event in Mah­mudiyah, Feb. 27. The U.S. funded pro­gram pro­vides cru­cial vac­cines nec­es­sary for health growth and devel­op­ment. Photo by Jamie Vernon

The U.S. State Depart­ment Embed­ded Provin­cial Recon­struc­tion Team par­tic­i­pated in a project inoc­u­lat­ing and deliv­er­ing chick­ens to the Mah­mudiyah Poul­try Asso­ci­a­tion Feb. 27.

Charles Rus­sell, an agri­cul­tural advi­sor for the EPRT trav­eled to the Poul­try Agkardi Hatch­ery here to assist local Iraqi farmer spray 22,000 chicks—each of them 21-days-old—with a vac­cine to pro­tect them from Gum­boro dis­ease. Gum­boro dis­ease (also known as infec­tious bur­sal dis­ease) destroys a chicken’s immune sys­tem, leav­ing it sus­cep­ti­ble to infec­tions much like AIDS does in humans. Untreated, the highly con­ta­gious dis­ease can lead to high mor­tal­ity rates among chickens.

The chicks were taken from the hatch­ery to the Mah­mudiyah Poul­try Asso­ci­a­tion where they will be raised for 40 days, long enough for them to grow to a weight of at least 2 kilo­grams. At that weight, they will be ready to be sold to local mar­kets and the Iraqi pop­u­lace as poultry.

Prior to the pro­gram, insuf­fi­cient breed­ing, care and con­di­tion of the chicks, it would take 60 days. Many times the chick­ens would only weigh 1.7−1.80 kilo­grams, not enough to be sold as poultry.

This EPRT project helped reduce the amount of time needed to raise the chicks, con­se­quently cut­ting back on feed costs, as well as the fuel used for the hatchery’s heaters.

“The profit is in the man­age­ment. When the feed is not good, and the breed of chicks is not good, the [out­come] is not good,” said Sheik Labid Khalid, owner of the coops and a board of direc­tor mem­ber for the Mah­mudiyah Poul­try Association.

Charles Rus­sell, a mem­ber of the U.S. State Depart­ment Embed­ded Provin­cial Recon­struc­tion Team and an agri­cul­tural advi­sor, sprays 21-day-old chicks with a vac­cine to pre­vent Gam­baro dis­ease, which attacks a chick's immune sys­tem, at the Poul­try Agkardi Hatch­ery dur­ing an EPRT event in Mah­mudiyah, Feb. 27. Photo by Jamie Vernon

Expen­sive fuel costs com­pro­mised the amount of warmth the chicks received for suc­cess­ful sur­vival and growth. This project cre­ated the funds nec­es­sary to buy the fuel needed to pro­vide proper heat for the hatchery’s incu­ba­tors and coops.

“It is very impor­tant to con­trol and pro­vide the right tem­per­a­ture for the chicks and this makes it dif­fi­cult,” said Sheik Labid.

In the past, the poul­try asso­ci­a­tion did not have healthy chick­ens to sell. The farm­ers of Mah­mudiyah could not rely on hav­ing enough poul­try as their source of income. The EPRT funded this pro­gram to assist the Mah­mudiyah Poul­try Asso­ci­a­tion to cre­ate bet­ter man­age­ment. This, in turn, helps pro­vide job sta­bil­ity for the Iraqi peo­ple, and sup­ports their economy.

“This project, estab­lished with U.S. assis­tance, is going in a smooth way. This is a won­der­ful project that cre­ates a lot of jobs for many dif­fer­ent tribes and helps the econ­omy in the Mah­mudiyah area. The money that went to cater to this project went to the right place,” said Mr. Shakeir, owner of the Poul­try Agkardi Hatch­ery and a mem­ber of the board of direc­tors for the Mah­mudiyah Poul­try Association.

More vac­cines will be given to the chicks in the com­ing weeks to help fur­ther pre­vent Gum­boro and other dis­eases related to reduced egg production.

DVIDS
Story by Jamie Vernon