Comparative study of the resistance or susceptibility of local Nigerian and exotic chickens to infectious bursal disease

Abstract

Local or village chickens are the major source of poultry products in less developed countries, but information is limited on their susceptibility or resistance to diseases. In this work, 6-week-old local Nigerian chickens, pullets and broilers were used. One day before infection the mean body weight of the broilers was more than twice that of the pullets and local chickens. The bursa: body weight (B:BW) indices of the pullets and local chickens were similar, but were significantly higher than those of broilers. Following inoculation intraocularly with pathogenic infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) drowsiness, drop in feed and water consumption, and diarrhoea were observed among the local chickens and pullets on day 2 post inoculation (p.i.) and in the broilers on day 3 p.i. Body weight losses from 1 to 11 days p.i. were significantly higher in the local chickens and pullets than in the broilers, total mortalities being 17.6, 50.0 and 61.51% in broilers, pullets and local chickens, respectively. Necropsy showed that dehydration and proventricular haemorrhages occurred most frequent in the local chickens. The response correlated with the B:BW indices on day 14 p.i.This showed that local Nigerian chickens are more susceptible to IBD than broilers and slightly more susceptible than pullets, explaining earlier reports that mortality due to IBD was higher in pullets or light breeds of chicken than in broilers or heavy breeds.

Diseases and management of indigenous chickens in Oodi, Kgatleng, Botswana

“…Antibodies to infectious bursal disease have recently been found in serum from unvaccinated indigenous chickens on farms around Gaborone (Mushi et al, 1999). Workers in other countries in Africa have also found antibodies to infectious bursal disease (Salman et al, 1983;Abd El Rahim et al, 1996;Okoye et al, 1999). The study by Okoye et al (1999) also provided evidence for the susceptibility of indigenous chickens to the virus.…”

“…Workers in other countries in Africa have also found antibodies to infectious bursal disease (Salman et al, 1983;Abd El Rahim et al, 1996;Okoye et al, 1999). The study by Okoye et al (1999) also provided evidence for the susceptibility of indigenous chickens to the virus. A seroprevalence rate of 50% was obtained for antibodies to infectious bursal disease in this study.…”

Low dose velogenic viscerotropic Newcastle disease virus infection caused 30% mortalities in Anak broilers but none in Lohmann Brown layer chickens

“…Possibly, the lymphocytes are the target cells where significant multiplication of the vvND virus (vvNDV) takes place as has been established in IBD (Okoye and Uzoukwu 1990;Mahgoub 2012;Sa e Silver et al 2016). It has also been shown that the heavy breeds of chickens such as broilers have smaller bursal indices than the light breeds and this has been shown to be the reason why IBD is more severe in pullets and cockerels than broilers (Okoye and Aba-Adulugba 1998;Okoye et al 1999). It is not clear whether such relationship exists in vvND.…”

Susceptibility of vaccinated and unvaccinated Egyptian chickens to very virulent infectious bursal disease virus

“…Other native (Balady and Golden) and foreign breed (White Leghorn) birds were of intermediate susceptibilit y. Okoye & Aba-Adulugba (1998) reported that local Nigerian chickens were more susceptible to IBDV than an exotic breed, and certain lines of Brown and White Leghorns are highly susceptible to IBDV infection (Bumstead et al, 1993). Fadly & Bacon (1992) studied the response of B congenic chickens to infection with IBDV.…”