An Epizootiological Report of the Re-emergence and Spread of a Lineage of Virulent Newcastle Disease Virus into Eastern Europe.

A number of contemporary outbreaks of Newcastle disease (ND) in Israel, Turkey, Georgia and Bulgaria have all been caused by a very similar viruses related to lineage 5a (genotype VIIa). Comparison with published ND virus (NDV) sequences suggests that this virus strain originated in South-East Asia and on introduction has circulated widely in backyard poultry in the Middle East and into Eastern Europe. An intracerebral pathogenicity index of 1.9 was obtained for a representative isolate from Bulgaria. In addition, the International Reference Laboratory for ND has characterized a molecular epidemiologically linked virus that has been reported to have caused disease in well-vaccinated broiler chickens in Pakistan. In the 1990s, another strain from the 5a lineage NDV was introduced into Europe and spread across the continent causing numerous outbreaks up to 1999. Despite improved controls, including good diagnostic tests and widespread vaccination, in commercial poultry, the novel circulating NDV strains described here have been established widely in the region and represent an increased risk for similar disease outbreak events to reoccur within the EU.

Efficacy of in-feed preparations of an anticoccidial, multienzyme, prebiotic, probiotic, and herbal essential oil mixture in healthy and Eimeria spp.-infected broilers.

The efficacies of 5 widely used dietary supplements were investigated on performance indices, fecal oocyst excretion, lesion score, and intestinal tract measurements in healthy and Eimeria spp.-infected birds by using a comparative model. This study included 2,400 sexed Ross 308 broiler chicks that were equally divided in 2 groups: the infected group, experimentally infected with oocysts of mixed Eimeria spp. at 14 d of age, and the healthy controls. The birds in both groups were further divided equally into 6 groups, of which one was fed a basal diet and served as control without treatment and the other 5 served as experimental treatments. These 5 groups were fed 5 diets containing preparations of 60 mg/kg of anticoccidial salinomycin (SAL), 1 g/kg of multienzyme (ENZ), 1 g/kg of probiotic (PRO), 1 g/kg of prebiotic (PRE), and 40 mg/kg of an herbal essential oil mixture (EOM). Body weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) showed significant improvement in the infected animals, which indicates that dietary supplemental regimens with SAL, ENZ, PRO, and PRE initiated in 1-d-old chicks reduced adverse effects after challenge with coccidiosis; however, chicks that were administered EOM failed to show such improvement. Uninfected chickens showed significant improvement in FCR with supplements SAL, PRE, and EOM, which signifies significant (P < 0.01) infection by supplement interactions for BW gain and FCR. In the infected group, all of the supplements reduced the severity of coccidiosis lesions (P < 0.01) induced by mixed Eimeria spp. through the middle and lower regions of the small intestines, whereas supplementation with SAL or EOM alone was effective (P < 0.01) in reducing oocyst excretion compared with the control treatment. The data indicated that use of these subtherapeutically efficacious supplements (except EOM) in broiler production can lessen the depression in growth due to coccidial challenge.

Performance, egg quality, and immune response of laying hens fed diets supplemented with mannan-oligosaccharide or an essential oil mixture under moderate and hot environmental conditions.

In total, 432 thirty-six-week-old laying hens were fed a basal diet supplemented with mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) or an essential oil mixture (EOM) from 36 to 51 wk of age. Hens were divided into 3 equal groups replicated 6 times with 24 hens per replicate. No significant difference was observed among the dietary treatments in terms of performance indices. Different from the dietary manipulation, high environmental temperatures negatively influenced all of the laying performance traits except the feed conversion ratio in association with the diminished feed consumption. The MOS, and particularly the EOM, tended to alleviate the deleterious effect of heat stress on BW gain. Mortality was higher in MOS-fed hens than with other treatments. A supplementation diet with MOS or EOM provided increments in eggshell weight (P < 0.01). Relative albumen weight was significantly decreased (P < 0.05) in response to EOM or MOS supplementation; however, this was not the case in the yolk weight rate. The MOS decreased albumen height and Haugh unit (P < 0.05). High environmental temperatures hampered entire egg quality characteristics except for the eggshell breaking strength and egg yolk weight. These results indicated that heat stress adversely affected both productive performance and egg quality. As for the results of this study, neither MOS nor EOM was efficacious in improving efficiency of egg production and stimulating humoral immune response in laying hens reared under moderate and hot climatic conditions. However, the ameliorative effect exerted by MOS and EOM on eggshell characteristics is conclusive.

[Reovirus infection of pheasants (Phasianus colchicus)]. / Reovirusinfektion von Fasanen (Phasianus colchicus).

In this case report we discribe clinic, pathology and diagnostic of an avian reovirus-infection in pheasants. The disease was observed 1993 in a flock of game-pheasants in the western part of Turkey. Of a live-stock of 100 animals, 27 were affected most of them being three to five months old. Beside a general disorder, sick pheasants showed signs of shortness of breath as well as greenish, watery diarrhoea and died within a week. The pathologic findings were dominated by an extreme hepatopathia. In addition a fibrinous tracheitis, a catarrhal inflammation of the gut and a perihepatitis fibrinosa could be observed. From organs of affected pheasants a pathogen could be isolated, which was characterized anti-genetically, by physico-chemical properties an by electronmicroscopy as avian reovirus.