Eight cases of Newcastle disease have been reported from Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in 2018, and all but one of those have been resolved, according to a recent OIE report.
The first case was reported in March, while the eighth was reported on August 4.
When the eight cases were combined, a total of 366,300 birds were susceptible. Of those, about 3,000 died as a result of contracting the disease, 89,000 were killed and disposed of, while the remaining 234,500 were slaughtered.
The one case that has not been reported as resolved was at a farm in Hurfeish. There, a flock of 8,000 table egg layers was susceptible to the disease, but OIE reported that there have been no deaths to date, nor have any birds been killed or disposed of. That case was reported due to a drop in egg lay, the report stated.
The cases also include several flocks of mixed backyard birds, a flock of 58,000 5-week-old turkeys, a flock of 190,000 five-week-old broilers, a flock of 13,500 five-week-old broilers, a flock of 68,000 six-week-old broilers and another flock of 28,800 birds that were only identified by OIE as heavy breeders.
All 3,000 of the deaths occurred at the farm involving a flock of 190,000 5-week-old broilers. According to OIE, clinical symptoms were found in only one pen of 35,000 chickens. That farm was located in Karmel.
Samples from the susceptible flocks were sent to the Kimron Veterinary Institute’s Avian Diseases Laboratory.
Other nations affected by Newcastle disease
To date in 2018, variants of Newcastle disease have been reported in birds in not only Israel, but also the United States, Colombia, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Cyprus. In December 2017, Newcastle disease was reported in France.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, 106 cases of virulent Newcastle disease have been reported in 2018, with all of those cases involving backyard exhibition birds in California.
