News

Intake into the Victoria Falls race is going well. So far we have received 2576 pigeons of which all except 495 are through quarantine and enjoying their freedom under sunny skies in Victoria Falls. Many of the top breeders in the world are entering again this year to test their breeding against the best.

We still await more shipments from Europe, North America, Middle East, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Our last intake will be received in Zimbabwe in October.

Our quarantine site near the International Airport can accommodate a total of 4500 birds at any time at full capacity. We however do not overcrowd the pigeons and they are well spread out. Each consignment is kept separate in one of 6 lofts with 5 sections in each loft and goes through the vaccination and treatment program.

All pigeons are handled on intake and graded according to health and condition. At the same time, they are vaccinated, treated for canker as well as external and internal parasites.  They are treated again for canker before shipping to the race loft. A broad-spectrum de-wormer is also used in quarantine. Pigeons that are under weight, in poor condition or have minor ailments are kept in a separate loft to receive extra attention. More serious cases are kept in separate hospital cages for treatment, and are hand fed if necessary. As a matter of interest, we don’t believe that this is a waste of time and effort as in the case of a pigeon (Sundowner) bred by Karl-Heinz and Timo Wagner which was hand fed and nursed back from a critical condition. This pigeon went on to win the ACE Bird competition in our Young Bird summer series ending in January 2018.

So far we have had 38 mortalities in quarantine which is 1.5% of our total flock size. 9 birds died within 7 days of arriving at the quarantine site or were dead on arrival. This indicates that they were carrying a subclinical infection when being shipped which later developed into disease from the stress of shipping. Breeders have been notified of losses and can send replacement birds with the remaining shipments if they wish.

Please contact your country agent to send birds - https://www.victoriafallswcpr.com/agents.php

Best regards

The Victoria Falls Team