Seroprevalence and mortality in chickens caused by pullorum disease and fowl typhoid in certain government poultry farms in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence and mortality in chickens caused by pullorum disease and fowl typhoid in five different government poultry farms according to three age groups during the period from June 2002 to May 2003. The overall seroprevalence of salmonellosis, especially pullorum disease and fowl typhoid was 26.67%. The mean seropositivity of five farms in three different age groups from each farm was 18.97±2.27%, 33.20±3.53% and 27.84±2.67% on 10th, 24th and 40th week of age, respectively. The mean seropositivity of three different age groups from each farm was 36.77±5.40%, 24.05±3.97%, 26.80±3.90%, 25.77±4.49% and 19.93±3.28% in Mirpur, Savar, Bogra, Kishoregonj and Tangail poultry farm, respectively. Fowl typhoid caused by S. gallinarum was the most predominant organism accounting for 295 isolates, and only 74 isolates were identified as pullorum disease caused by S. pullorum. The highest mean proportion of mortality due to fowl typhoid among five farms was 43.36±2.39% and was highly significant (P < 0.001) in 27-39 weeks age group. The proportion of mortality due to Pullorum disease was highly significant (P < 0.001) in day 0-13 weeks age groups and in respect of age, the highest mean value of pullorum disease was 10.47±1.14 from five farms.Key Words: seroprevalence; mortality; pullorum disease, fowl typhoid, chickensdoi: 10.3329/bjvm.v2i2.2539Bangl. J. Vet. Med. (2004). 2 (2): 103-106