New Infectious Bronchitis in the Southwest

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

Guest
Several of my birds have had respiratory illness. I have just had them blood tested and they show exposure to both mycoplasma and IB QX, a new infectious bronchitis which has become common in the southwest. It is nasty and can also lead to peritonitis and death. I have lost two of my birds to it.

Has anyone else had IB QX? I feel very unlucky as it came in with my very first, fully vaccinated bird and has cropped up a few times. I'd love to hear from anyone else that has had experience of this.

Is mycoplasma something that is going to be a problem forever, or something my flock can build a resistance to?
 
Yes I have heard of this IB variant. There has been a steady increase in myco and IB reported and one would imagine this is due to the increase in backyard keepers over the last few years. Lots of birds being moved around with little movement control adds to this sadly.

The strain you are referring to needs a good vaccination schedule to control, if I remember a combo of live vaccines, or a system in place which reduces the risk of exposure to the virus.

Just reinforces the need to always, always quarantine new birds for at least 3 weeks. Don't be afraid to ask loads of questions of your supplier ie. Do they hatch their own? Where does their stock come from? Do they keep a closed flock? Don't be afraid to examine their husbandry, and walk away if not entirely satisfied..your birds deserve it!
 
Hi Clare. We bought IB and ILT into our flock via two innoculated hybrids. What we didn't know was that they were innoculated with live viruses (in drinking water, used to be sprayed into the coops) and that they remained contageous for IB 12 months, ILT forever. Haven't had blood tests done to establish exact strain but the whole flock was treated with Synulox anti-biotic, twice a day on an individual bird basis. It was touch and go in some cases but after three weeks of major stress and expense we didn't loose any (14 infected).

Mycoplasma has been mentioned on a few posts and I need to find out more about it. Don't think we have a problem with it here (Staffordshire).
 
A note on mycoplasma if a bird is infected they are infected for life. Stress will cause the disease to flare up and during a flare up they will be infectious and shedding the pathogen, thus infective at this stage to non-infected birds.

A bit more informative on our website... (or click the website link in the footer and use the search facility)


http://poultrykeeper.com/chickens/health/the-chicken-vet-talks-about-respiratory-disease-in-chickens.html
 
Thanks Foxy. Some of ours could have it, but I have always assumed ILT as all ours are carriers. I will have a look at little Daffodil's swollen feet today and see if she has a runny nose and watery eyes at the moment; she did have when she arrived but that was ILT flareup as I recognised the smell. Her eggs were fine, but she's not laying at the moment. We'll have a little chat, she's always very talkative!
 
chrismahon said:
Thanks Foxy. Some of ours could have it, but I have always assumed ILT as all ours are carriers. I will have a look at little Daffodil's swollen feet today and see if she has a runny nose and watery eyes at the moment; she did have when she arrived but that was ILT flareup as I recognised the smell. Her eggs were fine, but she's not laying at the moment. We'll have a little chat, she's always very talkative!
Click to expand...

It is a possiblity that mycoplasma synoviae is the culprit and not ILT? I do remember at a show recently, I caught a whiff of that typical sweet smell.
Saying all that, even with blood testing your flock I can't see how your treatment is going to change? Your hens are so well looked after! :D
 
foxy said:
Yes I have heard of this IB variant. There has been a steady increase in myco and IB reported and one would imagine this is due to the increase in backyard keepers over the last few years. Lots of birds being moved around with little movement control adds to this sadly.

Just reinforces the need to always, always quarantine new birds for at least 3 weeks. Don't be afraid to ask loads of questions of your supplier ie. Do they hatch their own? Where does their stock come from? Do they keep a closed flock? Don't be afraid to examine their husbandry, and walk away if not entirely satisfied..your birds deserve it!
Click to expand...

Totally agree,of course, Foxy - the trouble is, many people just don't have the space or facilities to do this, and usually opt to divide their runs, more for social, integration reasons than disease control, and in most cases this works out OK, though it can cause longlasting problems, as you and Chris say. If you can do the 3-week total quarantine regime, does this mean that at the end of it, you can be sure the birds are free from infection?

From the infection control POV, is it better to stick to young, vaccinated hybrids straight from the original breeder/supplier? Many people buy their hybrids from an intermediary who buys a large mixed batch and sells them on, which may be the only way to obtain them locally for someone who just wants 2-3 birds at a time.
And then, of course, we're back to the old problem of should you mix vaccinated hybrids with unvaccinated purebreds, usually from a different, smaller-scale breeder?

Lastly, if a new bird shows signs of mycoplasma durting quarantine, is it best to cull immediately?
 
Really interesting thread, and I don't there there are really any hard and fast rules in this case. Not all respiratory problems are infectious for example..and there may be other causes. With just a few hens, treating is fine and why not? There are levels of infection, with good care birds can become healthy and stay healthy for some time.

There is an opinion that the majority of flocks in the UK now carry mycoplasma, so in a lot of cases that is very compelling case to buy in a few good quality (and well sourced )vaccinated hybrids.

I however, run a closed flock, on the occasion I bring a bird in, it is under very strict quarantine(minimum a month and it may never get integrated) if the bird shows any symptoms it is immediately culled. There again 99% of my birds are the result of generations of breeding my own birds, using the strongest fittest cockerels and 2 year healthy hens, so I know my birds pretty well.
 
foxy said:
It is a possiblity that mycoplasma synoviae is the culprit and not ILT? I do remember at a show recently, I caught a whiff of that typical sweet smell.
Click to expand...

What do people who show their birds do about re-quarantining when returning from shows? Is there a problem with the inevitable stress to the birds of going to a show, plus possible exposure to infection when they get there? Also of course this applies also to any birds bought at a poultry auction.
 
Daffodil is fine Foxy -apart from the 'gout'.

In retrospect we should never have intoduced live virus innoculated (as they all are now) hybrids in with Pedigrees. We have had to divide the Orchard into two to keep infected and uninfected apart. When we occasionally move one across she gets ILT symptoms for a few days then that's it. No medication needed as they are all very strong and healthy anyway. What to do with future additions I don't know and if we move they will have to be shipped separately.

In answer to your 'culling' question Marigold. It may just be an ILT flare-up from the stress of moving if it's a hybrid and you would end up loosing half of them. Think the basic rules are firstly, if you already have Pedigrees, isolate incoming Pedigrees and if any signs of contagious infection they have to go. Secondly, DO NOT risk introducing cheap hybrids (carrying infectious ILT and IB) to an expensive Pedigree flock -always keep them separate. Thirdly, introducing Pedigrees to a hybrid flock may be problematic if the hybrids are less than 18 months old and still IB infectious as well.
 
Marigold said:
foxy said:
It is a possiblity that mycoplasma synoviae is the culprit and not ILT? I do remember at a show recently, I caught a whiff of that typical sweet smell.
Click to expand...

What do people who show their birds do about re-quarantining when returning from shows? Is there a problem with the inevitable stress to the birds of going to a show, plus possible exposure to infection when they get there? Also of course this applies also to any birds bought at a poultry auction.
Click to expand...

Most exhibitors put their birds straight into quarantine.
At the big shows the breed club secretary and judge will go around and check birds before judging, if any look out of sorts they are removed from the show and disqualified. At our breed club we are very strict on this front, generally speaking at this level the birds tend to be kept away from other birds or in growing numbers are vaccinated against Mareks, IB and Mycoplasma.
 
Infectious Laryngotracheitis (ILT) Aileen. Eats the throat so too painful to eat. Comes with puffy face, runny eyes and nose with a characteristic smell all over from spreading the mucus during preening. Lethargic, dramatic weight loss and rapid death as a result. Which is why birds are immunised against it. They are given a live virus in the drinking water, a mild and survivable form which protects from the more aggressive strains. They do become carriers though and shed the virus (have a flare-up with all symptoms) when stressed. Problem is the virus can mutate in transmission so a bird infected second hand can get a far worse strain, which is what happened to us. They used to spray the virus into the coops at night. But some birds didn't catch it immediately and were infected with a more aggressive variant later. So it now goes into the drinking water.

Interestingly we can catch it and did. Although the symptoms are very mild -sore throat and eyes -we develop antibodies as a result, which is how the biologists discovered it could be transmitted to humans. So you can see why avian flu is so dangerous to us. Presumably you saw the series 'Survivors'.
 
1)How can you tell the difference between ILT and Myco?

2) is there a smell with both of them?

3) Does being a carrier of one of these make it easier for the bird to catch the other?

edited .... Any-one?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top