Horses eating chicken manure: Health concern???

[Andy Carson]

My chickens are getting into the horses feed trough to try to eat grain and generally make a nuisance of themselves. In the process, they leave droppings in the feed and hay that is in the trough. I usually scrape out any droppings when I feed, but there is always a little left behind. The horses don’t seem to care about it, and eat the few droppings along with thier hay/grain, but I have started to wonder if this might be a health risk for the horses. Perhaps I ought to do something to keep the chickens from leaving droppings in the feed trough, but I like the chickens “cleaning up” after the horses and they really keep the bugs down… Any thoughts?

[near horse]

Hi Andy – this is what I ran across that specifically listed bird/chicken manure but they also appear to be rare occurences.

The following is a list of uncommon and rare horse diseases.
http://www.greenhorn-horse-facts.com/horse-diseases.html

Histoplasmosis – this disease is caused by spores found in contaminated soil. Contamination occurs from the dung of chickens, birds and bats. Most infected horses will suffer only a mild respiratory illness.

Cryptococcus – a fungal disease that is acquired by inhalation. This fungus usually grows well in chicken, pigeon and bird dung. Infection will start in the nasal cavity and pass through to the lower respiratory tract, where it causes pneumonia

[Andy Carson]

Thanks Geoff,
I would think that these kinds of fungal infections would be most common in situations where there is a significant amount of manure (probably enough that it doesn’t dry out) or where the manure sits for a long time without being cleaned up. I would guess that if there isn’t enough manure to “make a stink” and/or it hasn’t sat around long enough to “make a stink” the risk is probably minimal… I just wanted to check if anyone out there had any experience with illness that may have been attributed to this cause…

I am still going to scrape it out of the feed trough, though, probably because I would want the done for me! 🙂

[Ridge]

Friend of mine had serious horse respiratory problems with one horse due to chicken manure.Got him straightened out but he went into it again and the chickens are not allowed in the barn anymore. I would keep the chickens out of the feed bunk after seeing the effects on that one horse. I thought he was going to die.

[dominiquer60]

When we clean our big chicken house we pitch it out the windows into the manure spreader in the barnyard where we have cattle out quite often. I don’t know why but some of the cattle think that this stuff is the best and hang out there while the barn is cleaned. My off steer is fond of cleaning up any spills, and some cows clammer to get it out of the manure spreader. It has never bothered any of them.

On another note, my steers will stand or lay in the sun next to the chicken coop on a hot day to avoid the flies, the chicken smell seems to keep flies away and what few venture into the coop never come back out.

[Author]

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