ARS | Publication request: Research update on exotic and emerging poultry diseases

Submitted to: United States Animal Health Association Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: October 21, 2007
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
Citation: Pantin Jackwood, M.J., Suarez, D.L., Zsak, L., Spackman, E., Kapczynski, D.R., King, D.J., Afonso, C.L., Day, J.M., Spatz, S.J., Yu, Q., Swayne, D.E. 2007. Research update on exotic and emerging poultry diseases. In: Proceedings of the 111th Annual Meeting of the U. S. Animal Health Association, Reno, Nevada, October 22-23, 2007. p. 702-707. Available: http://www.usaha.org/meetings/2007/2007_USAHA_Proceedings.pdf.

Technical Abstract: Exotic and emerging diseases of poultry continue to be a threat to US poultry. Studies over the past year have demonstrated: 1) cooking poultry meat at minimum of 70C kills avian influenza (AI) and Newcastle disease (ND) viruses in a few seconds, 2) low pathogenicity (LP) AI viruses isolated from free-living aquatic birds of North America over the past few years are distinct from the high pathogenicity (HP) AI virus of Eurasia, 3) experimental infection of waterfowl with H5N1 HPAI virus have shown swans and geese to be very susceptible to lethal effects of the virus but some duck species show minimal infection and no disease, 4) flies can be a source of ND virus dispersion from infected to susceptible poultry, 5) multiple genes in addition to fusion and hemagglutinin/neuraminidase genes are involved in high virulence of velogenic ND viruses, 6) paramyxovirus type 1 isolated from wild birds in North America are diverse and have been a source for infecting poultry in the live poultry market system, 7) a fusion gene primer set for RRT-PCR test was developed that detects class 1 ND viruses, 8) RRT-PCR test for AI virus has been improved to eliminate PCR inhibitors in test samples and detect new H5N1 variants, 9) ducks are able to up-regulate cytokine response of innate immunity and be protected from H5N1 HPAI virus as compared to chickens, 10) astroviruses, rotaviruses and reovruses are common in intestines of turkeys and broilers in USA, and 11) parvovirus was identified in turkeys with enteric disease.