article · International Journal of Poultry Science
This study examined how different infection routes alter the progression and severity of velogenic Newcastle disease virus in cockerel chickens. Six-week-old chickens were inoculated with the Kudu113 strain through intramuscular, intratracheal, oral, or contact exposure. Chickens infected via intramuscular and intratracheal routes developed early clinical signs such as depression and greenish diarrhoea by the second day post-infection, leading to complete mortality by day six. In contrast, birds infected orally or through direct contact experienced a more prolonged disease course, reaching complete mortality by day nine and day eleven, respectively. Post-mortem lesions, including intestinal ulcers, proventricular haemorrhages, and severe atrophy of the thymus and bursa, persisted longer in birds exposed orally or by contact compared to the injection routes. The findings confirm that the course, lesion persistence, and mortality timelines of Newcastle disease depend substantially on how chickens contract the virus.
Newcastle disease is a devastating threat to poultry production worldwide. Understanding how different exposure routes affect the speed of disease progression, clinical symptoms, and internal damage helps veterinary scientists and flock managers better recognise outbreaks, interpret post-mortem findings, and gauge the speed of transmission within flocks.
This research is early-stage comparative pathology without an immediate commercial product. The findings provide baseline reference data that veterinary vaccine developers, diagnostics manufacturers, and poultry biosecurity managers can use to design challenge models or tailor outbreak containment protocols. Further applied research would be required before these insights directly inform commercial diagnostic kits or field management guidelines.
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Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of routes of infection on pathogenesis of Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) infection. Materials and Methods: A total of two hundred and eighty day-old chicks were used in this study. At six weeks of age, the birds were randomly divided into five groups (A, B, C, D and E) of 60 birds per group except group D with 40 birds. The inoculum of Velogenic Newcastle Disease Virus (VNDV) Kudu113 strain, acquired from NVRI Vom was diluted with PBS to 104.36 per milliliter (ELD50). Each bird from groups A, B and C received 0.2mL of the inoculum, orally, intramuscularly (IM) and intratracheally (IT) respectively. In group D, 10 birds were tagged and introduced into each of the groups A, B, C and E, to be challenged through contact. The clinical signs, body weight and PM lesions were recorded; the hematology, HI titre was determined. The data obtained were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: The birds infected through IM came down with the clinical signs of NDV such that 25% presented with depression and greenish diarrhea by day 2 PI but reached 100% mortality by day 6 PI. The birds infected through IT also came down with the infection on day 2 PI with 5% depression, greenish diarrhea and 100% mortality by day 6 PI. Birds infected through oral and contact routes had depression rate of 85 and 66.7%, respectively. Orally infected birds had 100% mortality by day 9 PI while those infected through contact had 100% mortality by day 11 PI. The lesions of NDV persisted for 5 to 6 days in the birds infected via IM and IT. But those infected by oral and contact routes had lesion (severe atrophy of the thymus, bursa, proventricular hemorrhages and intestinal ulcers) which persisted till day 10 PI. Conclusion: The result of this study has shown that severity and duration of Newcastle disease in chickens depend on the route of infection.
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DOI: 10.3923/ijps.2025.76.84
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