Animal Mortality Rate Calculator
This calculator calculates the animal mortality rate. It allows producers to use their farm records to determine the level of mortality or death in their animals. Simply enter the opening stock with which you began a growing and the number that you have or have left at end of growing cycle.
You might be wondering what “mortality rate” means. Continue reading if you are curious about how to calculate the mortality rate for farm animals or what to do with the animal death rate.
This article will provide you with valuable information about the mortality rate for farm animals. It also explains the causes and impacts on animal health. You can also learn how to modify your farm production strategy in order to improve farm animal health, decrease animal death rates, and increase farm productivity. If you are interested, we also have an article about human mortality rate.
What is the animal death rate, or mortality rate? Definition of animal mortality
Animal mortality is basically the death of an animal population. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a pen, pen, pond or poultry mortality rate. As the animal population grows, it becomes almost impossible to avoid some death. Keep mortality to a minimum so that your animal production goals are not affected in terms of growth, sales or consumption.
When evaluating the productivity an animal production company, there are some key parameters you should consider:
- Reproductive Rate – This measure the fertility rate of the animals . It includes the rates of parturition (numbers of births per year for females) and proliferation (numbers of offspring per year for females).
- Feed transformation ratio This measures how efficient animals convert feed into desired products (biomass or eggs)
- Milk Offtake – This is a measure of the milk that has been used by dairy producers to provide human consumption, excluding the milk used to feed young lambs or calves.
- Take rate – A measure of how many animals are sold or consumed in a given year for meat.
- Mortality rate.
A percentage is a measure of the number deaths in your animal population during a specific growing cycle or period. It is a key indicator of how well animals are being cared for and how severe external factors like droughts or disease outbreaks have affected their health. The farm mortality rate calculator can be used to estimate the likelihood of an animal passing away on a farm.
The production parameters of farms are crucial for achieving the goal. They directly impact the management decisions. A farmer who is interested in herd growth will work to increase the reproductive rates of his herd, while a farmer looking to increase sales at the end-of-the season will strive for an improvement in the offtake.
The mortality rate has a direct impact on population dynamics and farm enterprises’ long-term profitability. This will help you increase farm productivity over the long-term, rather than focusing solely on the reproduction rate. Managing mortality is a major challenge in animal husbandry, particularly as animal numbers increase.
How do you calculate the mortality rate, cumulative mortality and case mortality?
To calculate the animal’s mortality over a period of time, here is a simple formula:
Mortality = No deaths = Opening stock + No newborns - Total animals sold - Closing stocks
where:
Opening stock– The number and type of animals that are available at the start of the growing season.Closing stock– The number and size of animals at the close of the growing season.
The mortality rate can be defined as the ratio of the death rate to the opening stock and the number of infants.
Mortality rate = % = Mortality/(Opening stock + Numbers of newborns) * 100%
Less farm animals die if the mortality rate is lower
Other than the mortality rate, there are other measures that provide a deeper understanding of animal production. However, these advanced measures are best suited for large companies. The following two measures are the most simple:
- Cumulative Mortality that measures the likelihood of an animal dying from a disease within a given time frame:
Cumulative Mortality = Deaths / Closing stock
And
- Death rate or infected animal mortality. These are measures of the number of animals infected with a particular disease and who died from it within a given time frame.
Mortality = Deaths from a Disease / Cases of Disease * 100%
Information on case fatality as a measure of mortality provides information about:
- The degree of disease severity
- Comparing the causes and effects of a disease in different environments and treatments;
- Evaluation of the effectiveness and safety of new treatments.
Example:
Let’s take a look at FarmOne and FarmTwo, two pig farms. Each farm has a population of 200 pigs. FarmOne reported 53 infected pigs, and 18 died from the disease. FarmTwo had 19 infected pigs and 9 were killed.
It is possible to determine the mortality rate in both farms and to evaluate mortality measures, such as cumulative mortality and case mortality.
FarmOne
18 Deaths
Mortality Rate = 18/200 * 100 = 9.0%
Cumulative Mortality = 18/182 = 0.99
Case Mortality Rate = 18/53 = 0.3339 = 0.0.339 * 100% = 33.9%
Two
9 Deaths
Mortality Rate = 9/200 * 100 = 4.5%
Cumulative Mortality = 9/191 = 0.047
Death rate in cases = 9/19 = 0.4774 = 0.7474 * 100% = 47.4%
Translating the Results:
- Mortality rate This means that more animals died of the disease in FarmOne than in FarmTwo.
- Cumulative death indicates a higher likelihood of disease in FarmOne. However, the Case Mortality Rate indicates that the disease’s impact is greater in FarmTwo.
Farm managers can use the results of the animal mortality rate calculator as a guide to determine if FarmTwo needs to do more to curtail the disease, even though the mortality rate was lower. These numbers should be kept low to ensure farm animal health.
Factors that influence animal health and mortality
Poor Nutrition
It is essential to provide adequate food and high quality water to animals in order to allow them to grow, develop and produce heat to keep warm and fight off illnesses. Animals will not get the most out of their food and may not be able to sustain themselves if they become ill.
Aged animals kept
The most vulnerable time for animals to die is in their first year of life ( Take extra care of your newborns!) or during pregnancy ( Care for your breeders!). As an animal grows, the risk of death decreases but then increases as they age. Depose your aged animals if you want to reduce the risk of death in your farm or herd.
Poor environmental conditions
Your animals’ environment must be safe, clean, and airy. Your animals must feel comfortable in order to grow and thrive. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Don’t stockpile pens or ponds too high.
- Keep chemicals safe
- Proper lighting is essential for farm buildings.
- You must monitor and prevent water and air pollution from the farm.
Preventive diseases are not covered by vaccinations
Farm mortality is almost always due to animal diseases. It is essential to ensure that your farm has high levels of biosecurity to avoid disease outbreaks. You must also vaccinate your animals against preventable illnesses if you don’t want to expose them to pandemics and death.
Monitoring your farm’s mortality rate is vital to overcome the problem of animal death. This will give you an understanding of your animals’ welfare. You can quickly identify potential problems and calculate the mortality rate by keeping accurate records about farm activities. It is true that the accuracy and scope of the animal mortality rate calculator may vary between animals. This is why it is important to keep accurate records of farm activities.
It may be easier to calculate the mortality rate for a particular season if you raise chickens or fish than if you are raising cattle. A pastoral farmer must keep more detailed records. They need at least three years of records to properly analyze their business’ economic situation.
Problems with the mortality rate parameter
- The farm management goals can lead to a farmer overestimating survival and underestimating mortality. The example of FarmTwo shows that if the goal of the farmer is to increase herd growth and reduce mortality by 5%, then achieving a low mortality rate without taking into account other measures could lead to a biased view on farm animal health.
- The data used to calculate the mortality rate can only measure the accuracy of the measurement. To get accurate results, farmers must keep good records.
- To estimate mortality, the measures must be taken within a time frame for a particular disease. The likelihood that animals die from other causes than the disease will increase if the duration of the disease is prolonged. This can lead to an overestimation in the case mortality rate. The result of an animal dying from the disease can be underestimated if it is not taken into account. The case death rate is used to assess the treatment and outcome of severe diseases in a short time span.