Viral Diseases in Poultry & Their Management – A Basic Field Level Investigation
What is virus?
Virus is simply a nucleic acid consisting of either DNA or RNA covered in a capsid. Viruses are infectious agents that are too small to be seen by a light microscope. They are the smallest and simplest of all life forms. All other micro-organisms, such as bacteria, mycoplasma, chlamydia and protozoa occur in cell forms, whereas viruses are not cells. They contain mainly nucleic acid, RNA (ribonucleic acid) or DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), but not both. Thus, viruses are classified either as a RNA or DNA virus.
What are Viral Diseases?
Those diseases which are caused by viruses are called viral diseases.
How virus infect the poultry birds?
Viruses are small structures which are not visible to naked eyes. They infect poultry birds though various routes like air, water, feed, dust, old unwashed equipment, transmission from breeders etc.
How virus causes the diseases?
Until a virus enters a cell, it is more dead than alive. It is as lifeless as a speck of dust. Alone, that is, on its own, a virus cannot multiply. It can multiply only in living host cells. When virus enter inside body it reaches to the cells where it can replicate itself. This is because it depends on the host-cell machinery for its protein synthesis and multiplication. Virus uses cell’s enzymes to complete these processes. Viruses are specific in their need for certain enzymes and find out a location in the body where such enzymes are produced. All viruses do not replicate in all the cells, they are made to grow in specific cells. Thus, some viruses may affect liver, some the bursa of Fabricius, others the respiratory tract, and so forth.
General information about viruses
- Viruses vary in size, from about 20 nanometres (nm) to 300 nm.
- They attack the host cells, and it is this invasion that is thought to produce the disease, rather than any toxin formed.
- When a virus attacks the cells lining the respiratory tract and air sacs, the cell membranes are ruptured and become a point of entry for other viruses and bacteria.
- In addition to causing structural damage to the host tissues and organs viruses usually initiate intense inflammatory reactions inside the body which sometimes become uncontrolled and often causes damage to the host rather than fighting viruses.
- In many cases, the disease developed by the primary invader virus may produce little damage to the bird, but the secondary invader bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, may cause serious disease.
- Immune suppression is often seen in viral disease outbreaks because most of the viruses uses strategies to damage immune system in a bid to escape from the immune reactions of the body.
Do immune boosting products are useful in viral outbreaks? My own experience!
It depends on many factors like which type of immune-boosting product is being used and which disease is diagnosed, is it actually a viral disease or not. Further vaccination status of bird and whether basic natural immunity of bird is maintained or not. Like in cases of subclinical IBD natural immunity is lost due to lower production of B cells and subclinical CAV in which T lymphocytes number goes down. Due to which birds are exposed to a variety of secondary diseases by opportunistic microorganisms, in such cases immune boosting products are not of much use because immune system stem cells have been destroyed. Most of the herbal and disinfectant products available in market in the name of antiviral properties are confusing for farmers and end users. We will discuss all such points in detail in further sections of this article.
Read further, related to this article
Why antibiotics do increases mortality in viral outbreaks?
Herbal products against viral outbreaks – An Investigation
Immunology of poultry birds – basics of avian immunology
Why vaccine failure occurs in poultry?
Practical use of knowledge of the avian immune system
Ethnoveterinary Medicine (EVM) and Viral Challenges in Poultry – Lessons from Field
Phytobiotics as strategic antiviral compounds – an advanced herbal science
Warning
Do not go for every herbal-labelled product that claims successful treatment
This is just an example that how we can explore potential antiviral herbs. During the above exploration, I came across many surprisingly unique points of avian immunology along with herbs and molecules that could effectively regulate it. With the help of the above information, I designed a product named VIROCON a few years back which controls mortalities in severe viral outbreaks. I mean it is really possible to save birds sometimes through knowledge of immunology and special intervention in the light of scientific evidence.
Note: above-quoted information is my own opinion backed by proven research and available scientific knowledge. Viral diseases in poultry is a non-ending subject in which research is going on and according to some experts, we do not even know 50% of all the diseases affecting poultry. New emerging viral diseases and modifications in existing strains make it more difficult to treat and control viral outbreaks by poultry health service providers. This is not the end of the document, I am exploring new things and adding to this document in future, INSHALLAH.
Dr Ibne Ali running ‘Ali Veterinary Wisdom’ with the sole purpose of educating poultry and livestock farmers. We try to help farmers by advising them during disease outbreaks, regarding the prevention of viral diseases, biosecurity planning, feed formulation, toxicity management and farm auditing.
