Marek's disease outbreak in poultry population of Mizoram, India Bhutia L.D.1, Singh Y. Damodar1,* 1Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Central Agricultural University, Selesih, Aizawl, Mizoram-796 014, India *Corresponding author: e-mail: dsyengkhom66@gmail.com
Abstract A study was undertaken to survey the prevalence of viral diseases of Poultry in Mizoram during March, 2013 to February, 2014. Marek's disease was diagnosed in 34(7.14%) cases of 476 poultry carcasses examined, based on clinical history, gross, microscopic changes and confirmatory diagnosis by Agar gel precipitation test (AGPT). The disease affected mostly the birds of 6–9 weeks of age (82.35%) followed by 9–12 weeks of age (17.64%) with morbidity and mortality being 5–10% and 0.5–2%, respectively. Clinical signs included emaciation, ruffled feathers, whitish-yellow diarrhea, ataxia in some birds, paralysis of legs, wings, neck and subsequent unilateral paralysis of extremities resulting in typical posture of cross-stretched legs. Grossly, liver and spleen was enlarged with whitish spots and nodular appearance. The sciatic nerves were pale or greyish in colour enlarged two to three times than normal size and lost cross- striations. Microscopically, liver, spleen, kidney and lungs revealed infiltrative agregates of pleomorphic lymphoid cells.Virus detection was confirmed by AGPT. Out of 89 samples 34 samples were found positive for MDV antigen. Top Keywords Diagnosis, Marek's diseases, Mizoram, Prevalence. Top |