Isolation time of brooding chicks play an important role in the control of Marek's disease

Abstract

This work reported the use of a combination of measures for the control of an outbreak of Marek’s disease (MD). Post- introduction vaccinations of young chickens in a farm that had an outbreak over a period of six years did not yield good result. The disease was therefore controlled by brooding new birds in isolated pens far away from the other one, use of biosecurity measures and brooding birds during the rainy season when the environment was damp with minimal dust in the air. Result showed marked reduction of infection during the first one year of trial. By the second and third years of trial, no infection was detected in the birds. This study therefore recommends isolation brooding, biosecurity measures, brooding during the rainy period and completely avoiding brooding during the harmattan period as good methods of controlling cases of MD outbreaks in Nigeria. Key words: Marek’s disease, isolation brooding, vaccination, biosecurity measures, young chickens, Nigeria.