Newcastle Disease in Birds
Newcastle Disease Turns up Sporadically in Poultry Flocks and Wild Birds
Newcastle disease is a contagious virus that kills a high percentage of the birds it infects. It can devastate commercial poultry operations.
In August of 2006, Newcastle disease turned up in a Homing Pigeon in Italy. The outbreak was contained and only one bird died. In Bulgaria, an outbreak killed 151 birds in November 2006 – 101 died from the disease and the remaining 50 were destroyed to prevent the virus from spreading. This was the fifth report of the disease in Bulgaria since August of 2005. In October, an infected partridge in Scotland prompted officials to create a 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone around the farm where the bird was ill and cull 14,000 other birds to prevent spread. The UK had previous outbreaks in 1984, 1997, and 2005.
These events demonstrate both the sporadic nature of the disease and its lethal nature: it appears from time to time, often without an obvious source, and often kills a high percentage of birds that it infects. When the virus appears in a large poultry operation, thousands of birds are destroyed in an effort to stop the virus from spreading further.
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