Newcastle disease and its different applicable control options in poultry in Ethiopia

Backyard poultry production has been a long-established husbandry practice in Ethiopia. It is estimated that Ethiopia’s backyard poultry population is about 53.31 million. The productivity of backyard poultry is constrained by disease outbreak especially Newcastle disease. Newcastle disease is an endemic, highly contiguous, viral disease that affects birds in both intensive and extensive production system. Vaccination against Newcastle disease has been established as one of the many interventions’ strategies, geared towards the control of Newcastle disease outbreaks in these flock. Currently, in Ethiopia, four types of Newcastle disease vaccines (HB1, Lasota, IOENDV, and Thermo-stable–12 vaccine) are used for the control of Newcastle disease. The application of conventional vaccination strategy for the control of Newcastle disease has been effectively utilized in intensive poultry production system. However, these conventional vaccination strategies against Newcastle disease outbreaks have not been fully optimized in backyard poultry production. Consequently, the application of thermo-stable vaccine in the form of feed baits seems to be the most appropriate method for effective control of Newcastle disease in village backyard poultry. Many kinds of feed stuff have been tested as a carrier of the vaccine virus; some have been proved unsuitable, while others are relatively suitable. The proper application of vaccine and vaccination programs together with other measures like sanitation, good nutrition, high level of management in most of the commercial poultry farms in Ethiopia and avoiding of concurrent infections, the occurrence of Newcastle disease outbreaks is rarely reported.