POULTRY HEALTH & DIAGNOSTICS

Pashu Sandesh, 07 January 2020

The poultry industry has established itself in India as a major contributor in the economy mostly on its own without major support from the Government. Poultry health thus becomes of prime importance considering the magnitude of loses which could happen if a disease is introduced due to poor farm management and delayed diagnostics. 

Department of Animal Husbandry GOI has recognised the importance of Poultry Health and issued advisory. Here are a few excerpts:

Animal health and human health are closely interlinked – more than sixty per cent of the pathogens that cause diseases in humans originate from domestic or wild animals. In addition, both animals and humans are affected by and affect, the environment in which they exist. Zoonotic pathogens may be transmitted to humans via food, through direct contact between animals and humans, or by other routes.

Further, an unprecedented increase of movement of people and commodities worldwide, the increasing interactions of humans with the environment, deforestation, climate change and variability, urbanisation, the intensification of animal production in response to growing global demands for proteins of animal origin such as milk, eggs and meat, economic development, and the international trade in exotic pets are just some of the factors that have provided greater opportunity for transmission of pathogens between animal species and human.

The OIE seeks to strengthen activities aimed at consolidating the “One Health” concept: it works in partnership with other world organisations to prevent, control and eradicate diseases existing at the interface between animals, humans and environment. It is therefore important to have a strategy which focuses on eradication at the animal source through the following key actions: early detection; early warning; rapid confirmation of suspects; rapid response; and rapid and transparent notification. It is, therefore, necessary to have a manual which outlines a harmonized approach to disease diagnosis by describing internationally agreed laboratory diagnostic techniques.

Poultry vaccines are widely applied to prevent and control contagious poultry diseases. Their use in poultry production is aimed at avoiding or minimising the emergence of clinical disease at the farm level, thus increasing production. Vaccines and vaccination programmes vary broadly in regard to several local factors (e.g. type of production, the local pattern of disease, costs and potential losses) and are generally managed by the poultry industry. In the last decade, the financial losses caused by the major epidemic diseases of poultry (avian influenza and Newcastle disease) have been enormous for both the commercial and the public sectors. Thus, vaccination should also be applied in the framework of poultry disease eradication programmes at national or regional levels under the official supervision of public Veterinary Services.