Detection of Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) in Layer Birds of Selected Districts of Bangladesh using AIV Antigen Rapid Test Kits

Abstract

Avian influenza (AI) is a highly infectious and emerging viral disease cause substantial economic losses and has the public health concerns. Hence, an attempt was taken to detect the occurrences of Avian influenza virus (AIV) using AIV antigen (ag) rapid test kit in layer birds of commercial poultry farm in selected area of Bangladesh. The study was conducted during January to December, 2020. A total of 97 tracheal swab samples were collected from the clinically suspected avian influenza (AI) infected dead layer birds immediately after postmortem and allowed to AIV ag rapid test kit. The overall AI occurrence by AIV Ag rapid test kit was 59.79%. Particularly, the highest proportion of positive cases was from Tangail district (78.57%), during the 2nd quarter (73.68%) of a year, farms having less than 1500 birds (66.67%) and the layer birds of 22 or less weeks age (63.64%). The mean number of birds (2063.45±1238.28) was higher in positive cases farm than the result showed negative (2035.64±996.39). Similarly, the higher body weight (gm) of Layer bird was for negative cases (1704.36±341.20) to Avian influenza virus without any significant (p>0.05) difference with the positive case (1608.10±427.83). Nevertheless, the mortality rate was higher in positive case (9.57±10.52) than the negative case (7.74±7.55) without any significant difference (p>0.05). To the sum up, the small-scale layer farms having the layer birds of younger aged are susceptible to AIV especially from April to June of the year.