Abstract

Newcastle disease (ND) is an economically important disease of poultry for which vaccination is applied as a preventive measure in many countries. In June 2009 we conducted a survey to establish the immune status of village chickens against ND virus in villages where vaccination programs, using thermotolerant ND I₂ vaccine were adopted by farmers in southern Tanzania. One hundred farmers from ten villages in three district councils were involved. Blood samples were collected from 499 chickens and sera harvested for Hemmagglutination Inhibition (HI) test. Results indicated that 73.3% of the sampled birds had protective levels of antibodies against ND virus. A significantly large proportional of vaccinated adult chickens attained protective immunity as compared to growers and chicks. We recommend advocating ND I₂ in other village chicken keeping communities of the country for ND control. Additionally farmers need to be educated on control measures for other important diseases of village chickens.

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