Newcastle disease (ND) is the most important viral disease of poultry in the world including developing countries. In Africa and Asia, it is a major constraint against the development of both Industrial and village poultry production. A serological study was conducted to estimate the level of circulating antibodies against ND in unvaccinated local chickens, raised under traditional management system in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria. Newcastle disease virus (NDV) antigen (La sota strain) was obtained and Haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test was used to analyse four hundred (400) chicken sera comprising 252 live bird market chickens, 88 household chickens for NDV antibodies from randomly selected live bird markets and households in four Local Government Areas (LGAs) within Nsukka zone. The LGAs include Udenu, Nsukka, Igbo-Eze South, and Igbo-Eze North LGAs. The remaining 60 chickens used as control were from vaccinated chicken flocks. An overall seroprevalence rate was found to be 60.3% (205/340), and only 47.1% (160/340) of chicken sera had HI antibody titre of ≥ 4log2 which was considered protective. A seroprevalence rate of 65.1% (164/252), 46.6% (41/88), and 86.7% (52/60) were obtained from live bird markets, households, and control groups respectively. About 52.9% (184/340) of chickens sampled were at risk of suffering from clinical ND. A Geometric Mean of HI antibody titre (GMT) of 207.9, 11.3, and 27.9 were obtained from live bird markets, households, and control groups respectively. There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in antibody prevalence between live bird market and household chickens when compared in each of the four LGA except in Nsukka (P
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE SEROLOGICAL STATUS FOR NEWCASTLE DISEASE IN LOCAL CHICKENS OF LIVE BIRD MARKETS AND HOUSEHOLDS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Introduction
Newcastle Disease (ND) is the most important viral disease of poultry in the world including developing countries (Adene, 1999; Spradbrow, 1997). In Africa and Asia ND is a major constraint against the development of both industrial and village poultry production (Alders et al., 2001). ND has been reported as one of the greatest constraints to the development of rural poultry production in Nigeria (Shamaki et al., 1989; Oladele et al., 2003). ND is a highly contagious and commonly fatal ribonucleic acid virus infection of birds which can cause up 100 percent mortality in susceptible chickens. Many avian species may become infected but dramatic losses are seen most often in domestic fowl and to a lesser extent in turkeys and Pheasants (Rosenbeger, 1981; Vickers and Hanson, 1982; Gordon and Jordan,1982)
ND is caused by avian paramyxovirus type-1(APMV-1) which is classified with other paramyxoviruses in the genus Avulavirus, subfamily paramyxovirinae, family paramyxoviridae, and order mononegavirales. It is an enveloped virus and has a negative sense single strand RNA genome.