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Abstract

| Globally, poultry production contributes substantially to national economic development of many developing countries. The study to investigate the distribution of poultry viral diseases prevalent around Maiduguri metropolis was carried out using a total of n=1114 and n=21 hospital records obtained from Borno State Veterinary Hospital (BSVH) and the University of Maiduguri Veterinary Teaching Hospital (UMVTH) from 2005 to 2010. The proportion of endemic viral diseases were analysed using SPSS version 20.0. The distribution of poultry viral diseases diagnosed at BSVH revealed a high prevalence of Newcastle disease (ND) (58.17%) and Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) (17.86%). While the prevalence of Fowl Pox and Infectious Laryngotracheitis were 8.26% and 0.81% respectively. However, low occurrence of Avian Influenza (0.36%), Infectious Bronchitis (IB) (0.27%), Lymphoid Leucosis (0.54%) and Marek's Disease (0.27%) were observed. In addition, 13.47% of all viral infections recorded were mixed infection. In UMVTH, the distribution of endemic poultry viral diseases diagnosed showed that the prevalence of Fowl Pox and ND was 47.62% and 42.86% while the prevalence of IBD observed was 9.52%. The overall viral poultry diseases diagnosed in Maiduguri metropolis during the period under investigation were ND (57.89%), IBD (17.71%) and Fowl Pox (8.99%) respectively. In addition, the prevalence of IB (0.26%), Infectious Laryngotracheitis (0.79%), Lymphoid Leucosis (0.53%), and Marek's Disease (0.26%) were observed to be relatively low. The result of this investigation demonstrated that the major viral poultry diseases affecting the progress of poultry production in Maiduguri are ND, IBD and fowl pox.