Epidemiological Study Of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus In Selected Districts Of The Copperbelt Province In Zambia

ABSTRACT

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is a highly contagious disease of young chickens between 3 and 6 weeks of age. It is caused by infectious bursal disease virus(IBDV) which occursworldwide affecting livelihoods of resource - compromised poor communities. In Zambia, there is scantily documented information on the epidemiology of IBD. In-depth knowledge on the epidemiology of IBD is needed for effective control measures. This study aimed at molecular detection of circulating IBDV strains, andknowledge assessment of farmers about the disease in Ndola, Kitwe, Kalulushi, Luanshya and Mufulira districts of the Copperbelt province. A cross-sectional purposive study was carried out in the Copperbelt province from February to March, 2015 to determine the occurrence of IBD. The identification of IBDV was done by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) targeting the hypervariable domain (VP2-HVR). A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 77 respondents who presented poultry related cases to clinics in the selected districts and the information collected was analyzed by statistical package for social scientists (SPSS). A total of 30 bursa of Fabricius samples from young chickens that presented with clinical signs suggestive of IBD were examined. The RTPCR results revealed two positive samples for IBDV VP2-HVR domain. Questionnaire study revealed that 70.0% (n=10) of the respondents did not know what disinfectant to use; 75.0% (n=57) felt assigning more than one individual to a flock of chickens did not compromise biosecurity whereas 20.3% (n=15) knew the important clinical signs of IBD, compared to 60.1% (n=46) and 70.7% (n=54) that knew clinical signs related to chronicrespiratory disease and ND respectively. Ninety six percent (n= 73) adhered to vaccine cold chain practices.