The future of poultry health: New and old challenges

Poultry health challenges in the future will be endemic avian influenza and Newcastle viruses, restricted antibiotic use, and cage-free and free-range production.

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In the future, there will be new vaccination programs and new concepts such as a universal poultry vaccine, with multiple viruses or antigens. | Courtesy Merial
In the future, there will be new vaccination programs and new concepts such as a universal poultry vaccine, with multiple viruses or antigens. | Courtesy Merial

Two focal points of avian health in the future will be viruses – such as avian influenza and Newcastle – that have become endemic in some regions, and the impact of new trends in poultry and egg production, experts say.

In developed countries, diseases such as avian influenza and exotic Newcastle virus are eradicated by euthanizing infected flocks. But this practice is not uniformly followed among poultry producers in less developed countries, resulting in diseases that are endemic in some regions.

Respiratory and enteric diseases will continue to shape the poultry industry, one expert says. 

“I do not think that we will face new diseases, but rather more types of variants – as with avian flu – and with more intensity,” says Sylvain Comte, director of poultry business at Ceva Santé Animale.

Endemic avian influenza

Avian flu has evolved to become the No. 1 concern among the catastrophic infectious diseases in poultry. 

Forty years ago, “talking about avian flu was like talking about something that happened in another world,” says Dr. Miguel Angel Marquez, Mexican member of the ad hoc group on Newcastle disease at the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris. Now, avian flu is addressed in a more detailed manner and taken more seriously.

While the poultry industry has grown in Asia and Africa, those regions do not address disease like the U.S. and Europe do.

“One of the things we’ve seen in the last 10 or 15 years is that these countries do not have the same dedication and concept to eradicate highly pathogenic avian flu as in the U.S. or Europe, where it is eradicated at all costs,” says Dr. John Glisson, vice president of research programs at the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association.

“The H5N2 and H7N3 strains have been a real disaster for Mexico, but we did not proceed to the total slaughter of the birds,” Marquez says. Most worrying is that both viruses are circulating in the country, are endemic, and vaccination continues.

By not eradicating the avian flu virus, it continues to spread and mutates, so it becomes a problem around the world. 

“This has forced us to change: We used to not worry about avian flu, because we never thought there was going to be a constant source of the virus,” Glisson says. In the future, it is likely that avian flu will be present in new countries.

Ubiquitous Newcastle disease

Another concern is Newcastle disease (ND); the OIE receives more notifications of ND than any other. There are ways to control ND, including vaccines, biosecurity measures, and mobilization controls of products and byproducts.

“Newcastle is so endemic in many countries, which is also a major risk to the global poultry industry,” Glisson says. “For many years, some countries have decided not to eradicate it, like Mexico. It is a major concern for the U.S. and Canada.”

But it is not a concern in only the U.S. and Canada. Brazil has worked very hard to control and eradicate ND, but it is surrounded by countries that do not, “so their industry is in the same situation as ours,” Glisson says. 

Brazil has developed a “national poultry health plan, targeted to major diseases of economic interest,” says Rui Eduardo Vargas Saldanha, vice president and technical director of the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA).

The challenge of antibiotic-free production

There is increasing consumer pressure to produce chicken and eggs raised without antibiotics (also referred to as antibiotic-free or ABF) in mature markets. In fact, many restaurant, hotel and supermarket chains have stated that they will only buy chicken and turkey from farms that have never been treated with antibiotics. 

What is concerning about this, Glisson says, is that “it is not the government that says this, but retailers.”

Ionophores, a major group of coccidiostats used to control coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis, are antibiotics. This creates a major challenge in ABF production.

The other major problem in ABF production is respiratory diseases that turn more complicated with colibacillosis. It is expected that more airsacculitis problems will arise.

“Producers will have to learn new ways to produce in the context of the decreased use of antibiotics with more focus on prevention,” says Jérôme Baudon, Head of Strategic Business Unit Avian, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health 

In this regard, Ceva’s Comte says that “we have some vaccination solutions, but 50 percent of the job is to work with the producer in monitoring field data, management, and the environmental and husbandry conditions.”

Problems with cage-free production

The conversion to cage-free egg production has brought back some disease issues not seen in decades. Access to the outdoors can cause other health issues.

The problem for poultry producers is that many consumers “visualize production with birds that have access to the outdoors and the countryside, which certainly is not good either for bird health or controlling simple diseases, such as external parasites and coccidiosis,” Glisson says. 

This will change the way producers develop health programs, because of increased risks. Cage-free birds have greater exposure to feces, and birds with outdoor access have greater risk of exposure to wild birds, rodents and other potential disease carriers and predators. 

Activist groups that have driven these changes place more importance on allowing birds to perform natural behaviors than on other considerations like bird health. 

“Much of the progress we have achieved, in which we have worked so hard on avian health, will be lost,” Glisson says.

More poultry welfare considerations

There are several poultry welfare concerns being raised by activists, such as housing density, beak trimming and disposal of male chicks. They all need solutions. And “although they are driven by developed markets,” Baudon says, “developing markets will have to comply with these changes, in the sense of globalization itself and trade.”

“What is very worrying is that radical groups have been very efficient,” Marquez says, in such a way that many have accepted alternative production systems. But it is also worrying that these are views that do not suit all realities. 

“It’s a Frankenstein rising above us – the view and action of the rich countries – that the rest of the countries are following,” Marquez says. 

 

Movement toward a universal vaccine

For the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein’s Rui Saldanha, “most of the problems that compromise the poultry sector can be prevented with biosecurity.” 

That’s why “the producer is in the process of going from treatment to prevention, with a focus on vaccination,” says Merial’s Jérôme Baudon.

Prevention is the key. Therefore, Ceva’s Sylvain Comte also agrees that “we are going toward vaccination and management, and less direct treatment.” 

Consequently, the industry will look to “develop a mix of technology, with vector vaccines and classic live vaccines,” but also “there will be new vaccination programs, new ways of doing and adapting them.”

Another aspect of this concept is the universal, “all-in-one” poultry vaccine. 

“Poultry producers are asking us for a single vaccine with multiple viruses or antigens – a single-application vaccine,” says Baudon.

In the future, vaccination will move from the farm to the hatchery. To do this, technology is needed to ensure proper application through process automation in the hatchery.

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