Assessment of Seroconversion and Protection Level Against Viral Diseases in Commercial Layer Chickens in Bishoftu town, Ada’a and Lume Districts, Central Ethiopia
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Date
2025
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Chickens receive live attenuated or inactivated vaccines to control Newcastle disease (NCD), Infectious bursal disease (IBD) and Infectious bronchitis (IB) virus, with humoral antibodies typically developing within 6–10 days in serum and mucosal surfaces. The efficacy of vaccinations can be estimated best with experimental challenges but the procedure is usually expensive and time consuming. Therefore, the current study aimed to assess the seroconversion and protection level against viral diseases including NCD, IB and IBD in commercial layer farms found in Bishoftu town, Ada’a and Lume districts from November
2024 to June 2025. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study and questionnaire survey were conducted to assess risk factors, and serological investigation to detect the protection level of vaccines in chickens found in 19 sampling sites in three study areas making a total of 384 if chickens during the entire study period. Simple random sampling was employed to obtained proportional number of chickens from each of small-scale, medium scale and large-scale farms during the study period. Data recorded during the study period was entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and descriptive statistics and chi square test were performed using STATA Version 17 software. Out of the 384 chickens tested, 380 achieved protective antibody levels for NCD, resulting in a seroconversion prevalence of 99%. IBV achieved 377 protective antibody levels resulting in a seroconversion prevalence of 98%, whereas 363 of the chickens developed protective antibodies against IBD, resulting in a seroconversion prevalence of 94.5%. Ventilation, hygiene, post-vaccination, flock size and location showed significant difference (P < 0.05), however, age, breed and housing were not showed statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) with the occurrences of the aforementioned diseases. The study identified key risk factors associated with the development of protective antibodies after vaccination against viral diseases and help to develop evidence-based recommendations for effective management, handling, storage and transportation of the poultry vaccines in the area
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Chicken, Protection level, Seroconversion, Vaccine, Risk factors, East Shewa