Preliminary Studies On The Virus Causing Outbreak Of Duckling Short Beak And Dwarfism Syndrome (Sbds) In Egypt

Amani Saleh,Mohamed Khoudeir

doi:10.21608/javs.2020.118004

Abstract

Many Mule, Muscovy, and Bikini duck flocks in different duck-producing regions in Egypt have shown signs of a new disease designated short beak and dwarfism syndrome (SBDS) since 2015. The ducks with SBDS showed strong growth retardation with beak atrophy, enteritis, and paralysis. Although the mortality rate was 2%–8% in affected flocks, the morbidity rate was 20%–50% and even 80% in some regions. The disease is characterized by dyspraxia, weight loss, a protruding tongue, and high morbidity and low mortality rates. To characterize the etiological agent, a virus was isolated from the allantoic fluid following serial passage in embryonated duck eggs. This virus causes a cytopathic effect in duck embryo fibroblast (DEF) cells. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the isolate was positive for the antigen of goose parvovirus (GPV). The bovine sperm agglutination test indicated that the virus was most closely related to GPV strain. Together, these data indicated that the isolated virus from mule ducks with SBDS disease is a GPV-related parvovirus causing and that it is divergent from classical GPV isolates.

Highlights

Waterfowl parvovirus infections are generally divided into goose parvovirus (GPV) and Muscovy duck parvovirus (MDPV)
Short beak and dwarfism syndrome (SBDS) was first reported in France in the early 1970s in mule duck flocks
The low mortality rate observed for affected farms was not high, ducks' production performance that survived the infection was significantly reduced due to abnormal feathering and growth retardation

Summary

Introduction

Waterfowl parvovirus infections are generally divided into goose parvovirus (GPV) and Muscovy duck parvovirus (MDPV). GPV infects both goslings and Muscovy ducks, causing Derzsy’s disease (Derzsy et al, 1970) while MDPV infects Muscovy ducklings, causing a disease known as "three-week disease". Both types of infection are fatal to waterfowls. Short beak and dwarfism syndrome (SBDS) was first reported in France in the early 1970s in mule duck flocks (mule duck, a sterile intergeneric hybrid produced by crossing Peking and Muscovy duck). The diseased flocks showed retarded growth with short beaks (Palya et al, 2009). NGPV was not a lethal etiological agent in ducks, but farmers suffered from great economic losses due to reduced sales of NGPV-infected ducks

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