About Newcastle Disease (ND):
- It is a highly contagious and often severe disease found worldwide that affects birds, including domestic poultry.
- It is caused by a virus in the family of paramyxoviruses.
- It attacks their respiratory, nervous, and digestive systems.
- ND only affects birds, particularly poultry, such as chickens.
- It can cause illness and death in large numbers of birds quickly.
- Transmission:
- ND is transmitted most often by direct contact with diseased or carrier birds.
- Infected birds may shed the virus in their feces, contaminating the environment.
- Transmission can then occur by direct contact with feces and respiratory discharges or by contaminated food, water, equipment, and human clothing.
- ND viruses can survive for several weeks in the environment, especially in cool weather.
- The disease is very contagious. When the virus is introduced into a susceptible flock, virtually all the birds will be infected within two to six days.
- Symptoms: Infected birds may show signs of:
- loss of appetite, coughing, gasping, nasal discharge, watery eyes, bright green diarrhoea, and nervous signs such as paralysis and convulsions
- combs and wattles may look swollen, enlarged, and discoloured (purple or blue)
- reduced egg production, and the few eggs that are produced may be soft shelled and malformed.
- Treatment:
- There is no treatment for ND, and, in many countries, infected and susceptible birds in the vicinity of an outbreak are culled to contain transmission of the disease.
- Prevention is accomplished through vaccination and strict biosecurity.
Q1: What is a Virus?
A virus is an infectious microbe consisting of a segment of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat. A virus cannot replicate alone; instead, it must infect cells and use components of the host cell to make copies of itself. Often, a virus ends up killing the host cell in the process, causing damage to the host organism. Well-known examples of viruses causing human disease include AIDS, COVID-19, measles and smallpox.
Source: Brazil declares animal health emergency after Newcastle disease case
Last updated on July, 2025
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