He described the most recent ILT outbreak in North Carolina as a “community” disease.

“If your neighbor gets it, you can get it,” Stayer told Poultry Health Today, adding that here’s so much ILT virus in the environment it’s now found on farm lanes. If growers drive on local roads, their vehicles are exposed. That’s why Sanderson Farms has asked growers to restrict use of their farm trucks. Growers have also been asked to keep their private vehicles off the farms, he said.

Stayer’s investigation into the causes of the outbreak showed that farmers were parking their trucks in front of the broiler house air inlets. Virus on the truck then got inside the chicken house via air. ILT usually gets tracked into the poultry house on a person’s feet, Stayer said, but not in this case.
The veterinarian noted that feed trucks delivering to farms are another potential source of viral contamination. However, they’re disinfected as they come onto farms and they don’t remain for long. Farmers, on the other hand, tend to park their trucks by the broiler house for long periods of time, which they’ve now been asked not to do.

As an extra precautionary measure, Sanderson Farms is also limiting the number of people who can go into broiler houses until the outbreak ends, Stayer noted.