UK Poultry Disease Quarterly Surveillance Report - February 2005 - By Veterinary Laboratories Agency - This report monitors trends in the major endemic poultry diseases and utilises the farmfile and VIDA (Veterinary Investigation Disease Analysis) databases. The report is compiled using disease data gathered by the network of 15 VLA regional laboratories which carry out disease investigation in the field.

Quarterly Surveillance Report Poultry: Vol. 8 No. 4 October - December 2004 - Published Feb 2005 Contents OVERVIEW (here) POULTRY STATISTICS NOTIFIABLE DISEASES: - Submissions to the EU reference - Laboratory - Imported Captive Birds - Fowl Cholera FOOD SAFETY AND ZOONOSES - Food Safety - Salmonella Report - Salmonella ZO4 Visits - Non-statutory Zoonoses ENDEMIC/NEW AND EMERGING DISEASE SURVEILLANCE VIROLOGY REPORT - Avian Virology Isolates 2004 - Blackhead in Turkeys - Blackhead in Chickens - Necrotic Enteritis and Bacterial - Spondylitis in Broilers OTHER POULTRY TOPICS - Mareks Disease - Avian Intestinal Spirochaetosis - Turkey Airsacculitis - Coccidiosis - Avian Pneumovirus - Infectious Bursal Disease - Uneveness in Broilers Appendix I – VLA Lasswade 12 histopathology submissions

Highlights

• New IBV Strains
• Blackhead in Turkeys
• Blackhead in Layers
• Increase in Mareks Disease

Overview

The statistics on page 3 of this report show that commercial layer chick placings have increased during the second to fourth quarters of the year and this may reflect cautious optimism in that industry, particularly in the free range sector, despite a drop in egg prices paid to producers during the year.

In contrast there has been a marked drop in broiler parent chick placings through the year, and also a decline in commercial broiler chick placings, although broiler numbers as a whole remain high. However the rise in imports remains a concern. Placings of turkey poults are down but comment in Poultry World magazine suggests this has in part been due to a move to larger birds for processing.

In terms of disease this report covers both October-December of 2004 and summarises the year as a whole. The overall health status of the industry has changed little during the year. A number of health problems of uncertain or multifactorial aetiology remain, including clubbed down in chicks (page 6) and unevenness in broilers (page 11) and there is evidence of new disease agents emerging including astrovirus in turkey poults (page 7). Foremost among reappearing diseases in 2004 was Goose Parvovirus (page 7; referred to in more deta in Vol 8 No 2), and the virus was isolated in the UK for the first time since 1981. investigations have been carried out where Avian Intestinal Spirochaetosis has been implicated (page 10), possibly reflecting a greater awareness of this disease. Further cases of airsacculitis accompanied by neurological signs have been recorded in turkeys (page 10).

Blackhead (histomoniasis) in turkeys, although regularly diagnosed, has not developed into a problem of the magnitude that some feared following the withdrawal of medications licensed to control it (page 7). A similar comment is also relevant to motile protozoal infections in gamebirds, the subject of a detailed report in Vol 8 No 3, follwing the unavailability of dimetridazole. In contrast, however, VIDA data indicate an increase in blackhead in layer chickens (page 8) in which control of the disease may be even more problematic than in turkeys.

VLA data indicate a decline in necrotic enteritis and bacterial spondylitis in broilers (page 9) suggesting that disease associated with these and other Gram-positive bacterial infections are under control following the withdrawal of Antibacterial Growth Promoters in recent years.

The Salmonella data presented on page 4 show good control of S Enteritidis and S Typhimurium is being maintained in the breeder and broiler chicken sectors, but infection is still evident in the layer sector and will continue to become apparent during the course of the EU layer survey. The survey was described in more detail in Vol 8 No 2.

To read the full 13 page PDF report please click here

Source: Veterinary Laboratories Agency - November 2004