Surveillance aimed at pinpointing the type of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) that’s circulating in poultry flocks is essential to control of the disease, Mark Jackwood, PhD, University of Georgia, told Poultry Health Today.

There are a lot of different IBV types circulating in the poultry industry. “So if we don’t know what’s out there, we don’t know which vaccines to pull off the shelf to use...,” he said.

Newcastle disease (ND) throughout most of the US remains stable, but the industry needs to be on guard for changes in the virus that may require adaption of ND vaccines, Guillermo Zavala, DVM, PhD, president, Avian Health International, cautioned in an interview with Poultry Health Today.

The ND strains circulating in most of the poultry-dense regions of the US are still the milder, lentogenic type that cause some respiratory and uniformity problems. They are nothing like the virulent form of ND that started in California backyard flocks, ultimately making its way to a few commercial flocks where it caused substantial losses.

Preventing birds from getting sick is perhaps the biggest challenge encountered when transitioning from conventional to “no antibiotics ever” (NAE) production, Tony Newsome, division manager, Fieldale Farms, told Poultry Health Today.

Fieldale Farms was one of the first poultry companies to transition to NAE production. It’s been a long process, Newsome said, but the company has figured out how to raise healthy NAE flocks.

“We basically started from the ground up,” first with pullets and breeders, he said.

Acceptance of a petition designating avian leukosis lesions on poultry carcasses as a trimmable condition is expected to reduce waste and improve efficiency at processing plants while allowing meat inspectors to focus more on food safety, said Ashley Peterson, senior vice president, scientific and regulatory affairs for the National Chicken Council (NCC).

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recently granted the petition by NCC, which requested the agency amend its regulations.

“The existing regulations require that any lesion in a leukosis check results in the whole carcass  ⸺ that’s the carcass and the viscera ⸺ being disposed of and not going into the food supply,” Peterson told Poultry Health Today.

Producers making the switch to cage-free egg production need to ensure they and their staff are properly prepared for managing potential increases in Salmonella and other health challenges associated with those systems.

John Brown, DVM, Zoetis senior technical services veterinarian, said cage-free operations typically experience higher levels of Salmonella, coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis, as well as more “old” diseases such as fowl cholera.

And unless staff have the right skills to transition from conventional systems and respond to increased disease challenges, cage-free enterprises run the risk of not being as productive as they could be.

Vaccinations and other preventative health measures are more critical than ever as the US egg industry shifts toward cage-free and no-antibiotics-ever production, according to an industry expert.

Ian Rubinoff, DVM, director of global technical services at Hy-Line International, said the decision by major retailers to switch to cage-free production systems by 2025 has increased health and management challenges for producers.

Coupled with growing pressure to use fewer antibiotics — and in some cases none at all — means producers need to be more proactive than ever in handling bird health and welfare, he said.

Focusing on chick quality from the moment eggs enter the incubator is critical to ensuring birds have the best chance of being healthy and productive in no-antibiotics-ever (NAE) systems.

Donna Hill, PhD, of Donna Hill Consulting, said rearing strong chicks is critical to the success of NAE systems, as weak birds are more likely to succumb to bacterial challenges and other issues in the field.

And without the support of antibiotics to back them up, birds in these systems risk sacrificing growth for survival, resulting in less-developed chicks which expend more energy on hatching, and higher mortality rates.

“Incubation is a growth equation,” she told Poultry Health Today. “The better job you do with incubation, the better developed the embryo is at harvest.”

Training chicks and pullets so they are prepared for life in cage-free egg systems is critical to ensuring they meet their full productive potential, according to a leading veterinarian.

Isa Ehr, DVM, a technical services veterinarian with Hendrix Genetics, said birds reared in conventional pullet houses could find moving to cage-free barns difficult, leading to feeding and laying issues.

But, he said, by raising pullets in systems which closely resemble or match the lay houses they will be transferred to, egg production is less likely to be affected.

The feed additive sodium bisulfate administered to broilers during a coccidial challenge appeared to benefit gut integrity, Elle Chadwick, Graduate Research Assistant, North Carolina State University, told Poultry Health Today.

Chadwick and colleagues have been studying the interaction of diet and disease and its impact on weight and intestinal integrity. Their study with 1,200 male broilers included a comparison of results in broilers that received diets with or without sodium bisulfate during a coccidial challenge. 

The poultry industry’s gradual switch to cage-free egg production has underscored the need to rethink disease-control programs and address health and welfare challenges unique to layers in these production systems, according to Jean Sander, DVM.

With more than 200 US retailers pledging to sell only eggs produced in cage-free systems by 2025, producers are eager to make the switch to fill this growing demand.  However, the cage-free production gives rise to health problems not commonly seen in conventionally raised layers, she told Poultry Health Today.

And while many producers have learned about them through trial and error, it’s best to be proactive to ensure the health, welfare and performance of the birds.