Waterfowl and chickens together?

[Gamebird7]

Hey all.

Can ducks/geese spread diseases to chickens or vise-versa?

Thanks,

Chad

[Evy]

Both can pick up Coccidiosis from contaminated ground, but waterfowl don't get all the many other diseases that landfowl get.

[Gamebird7]

Thanks for the advice evy. Can ducks give cocci to chickens?

[Evy]

Thanks for the advice evy. Can ducks give cocci to chickens?

Nothing ''gives'' it to anything else. It's in the feces of everything. Most birds of every species build an immunity to it eventually. Introducing new birds or very young ones to contaminated ground can sometimes cause an outbreak in a susceptible bird.

[Gamebird7]

Thanks again evy. Always helpful.

[threehorses]

Cocci (their spores) are often found in the ground and pretty much in any ground you find - more so in concentrated poultry keeping areas. One issue you might have with keeping chickens and ducks together is that ducks tend to like to spread the moisture around. :)

Cocci become more likely to be infective in warm/moist conditions. So it would benefit you to keep your chickens in an area more dry unless you have a good deal of room.

I keep ducks and chickens together free ranged (my egg layers) but they have four acres of room. If I had to keep them in closer contact, I'd keep them separate.

Incidentally, chickens are mostly immune to the main species of cocci as adults - mostly - but there are nine species in all and should they happen to meet one that they hadn't met and to which they haven't developed an immunity, they can still get it even as adults.

Keeping conditions well drained and dry and hygienic is your best bet to prevent not only coccidiosis, but other illnesses as bacteria despise dry conditions.