Swedish layer flock affected by Newcastle disease

A flock of 5,000 laying hens in Sweden has tested positive for Newcastle disease.

Roy Graber Headshot
Marmit, Freeimages.com
Marmit, Freeimages.com

A flock of 5,000 laying hens in Sweden has tested positive for Newcastle disease.

The case was recently reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) by the Swedish Ministry for Rural Affairs’ Agriculture Department for Animal Welfare and Health.

According to a report on the OIE website, the farm, located in Västra Götaland County in the Western coast of the country, had two barns with hens kept in two houses. Birds in one of the barns were showing symptoms of egg drop and eggs without shells, but there was no increase in mortality.

The source of the infection has not been determined.

A 3-kilometer protection zone and a 10-kilometer surveillance zone around the infected premises have been established and surveillance activities have commenced.

Other control measures being implemented include movement control inside the country. The susceptible bird population will be stamped out, animal products, carcasses, byproducts and waste will be properly disposed of, and the property will be disinfected.

The OIE stated that weekly follow-up reports concerning the Newcastle disease outbreak will be filed.

Earlier Newcastle disease cases in Sweden

According to the OIE, Sweden had been free of Newcastle disease since November 2017.

In August of 2017, one of two layer houses at a farm in Kalmar County in the south of the country tested positive for Newcastle disease. Birds in that house showed symptoms that included egg drop, shell-less eggs and a spike in mortality. In that case, all 4,000 hens in the flock were humanely destroyed.

The country also had a Newcastle disease outbreak in 2016. In that case, a flock of 18,000 hens at an organic farm in Vellinge was affected by the disease. All of those hens were destroyed, as well as 80 doves that were located in a dovecote 300 meters from the farm.

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