Written by Rachel Martin
British officials have been able to lower the risk status of a highly infectious poultry disease entering the UK.
The latest Government assessment reviews Newcastle Disease’s control in Europe.
During the summer several cases of the disease were reported in Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Sweden.
Newcastle Disease is one of two notifiable diseases of game birds in the United Kingdom, the other being Avian Influenza. The disease was first reported in the UK in 1963 in pheasants.
How to spot Newcastle disease
As the disease develops affected birds may show some of the following signs:
- Respiratory distress such as a gaping beak, coughing, sneezing, gurgling, rattling;
- Nervous signs characterised by tremors and paralysis and twisting of the neck;
- Unusually watery faeces (diarrhoea) that are yellowish-green in colour;
- Depression;
- Lack of appetite.
Affected hens may also suddenly produce fewer eggs. Eggs that are laid may be soft-shelled.
Defra raised the risk level to the UK to medium in response to the Belgium outbreaks in July 2018,
At the time, this reflected the unusual nature of the outbreaks, which included a large number in hobbyist poultry keeper premises with possible links to dealers or live bird markets, despite mandatory vaccination of poultry in Belgium.
The Belgium situation is now controlled with disease-free status declared on October 18, 2018, and the risk to the UK has therefore since been reduced to low.
Swedish outbreak
However, the report highlighted that there is a “continuous low background risk” of any notifiable avian disease in the domestic poultry sector in the UK because of the large numbers of indigenous wild bird populations that carry viruses, including the strain involved in the recent outbreak in Sweden.
Sporadic cases of this pigeon variant in poultry in European countries (which do not vaccinate poultry against the disease) do not affect our risk status.
The risk of the disease jumping from wild birds into poultry is said to be low.
In October, one outbreak of the disease was reported at a large commercial flock on the western coast of Sweden.
The affected premises had 5,000 laying hens, which are kept indoors. Birds were reported to be showing clinical signs, including egg drop and eggs without shells, but with no increase in mortality.
The Government report concluded: “We will continue to monitor the situation closely, as this is an important exotic disease which will be a concern for the EU in terms of its ability to spread and the impact on poultry.”
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