Viral shedding and emission of airborne infectious bursal disease virus from a broiler room

Abstract

1. The significance of airborne transmission in epidemics of infectious diseases in the livestock production industry remains unclear. The study therefore investigated the shedding route (faeces vs. exhaled air) of a vaccine strain of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) by broilers and the emission of airborne virus. 2. The experimental room contained 526 broilers which were orally inoculated at the age of 20 d. The airborne virus was sampled by three different bioaerosol samplers: Andersen six-stage impactor, all-glass impinger (AGI-30) and OMNI-3000. 3. Infected broilers started to shed virus in faeces on d 5 post inoculation (PI), and stopped shedding on d 12 PI. The faecal virus remained detectable for at least two d after drying under broiler room conditions. No virus was detected in the air exhaled by broilers. 4. Airborne virus was collected on d 5, 8 and 12 PI at 20 cm above the floor, and on d 8 and 12 PI in exhausted air. The emission rates of IBDV were 4·0 log10 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50)/bird/d on d 8 PI, and 4·5 log10 TCID50/bird/d on d 12 PI. 5. We concluded that broilers shed IBDV mainly through their faeces. The presence of indoor airborne virus is associated with the viral presence in faeces. The successful recovery of airborne virus in exhausted air indicates there is a potential risk of virus spreading to the ambient environment via air.

Airborne Particulate Matter and Culturable Bacteria Reduction from Spraying Slightly Acidic Electrolyzed Water in an Experimental Aviary Laying-Hen Housing Chamber

“…Exposure to high concentrations of airborne bacteria and particulate matter (PM) can impair the health of the animals and workers (Seedorf et al, 1998;Whyte, 2002;Andersen et al, 2004;Mitchell et al, 2004). Some microorganisms can be transmitted through the air and cause animal diseases (Zhao et al, 2011a;Zhao et al, 2013a;Dee et al, 2009;Otake et al, 2010) and enter the food chain (Leach et al, 1999;Hajmeer et al, 2006). Airborne PM in livestock houses is considered a carrier of microorganisms (Gustafsson, 1999;Lee et al, 2006;Nehme et al, 2008;Nonnenmann et al, 2010;Hong et al, 2012).…”

Inactivation of airborne Enterococcus faecalis and infectious bursal disease virus using a pilot-scale ultraviolet photocatalytic oxidation scrubber

“…The virus can remain viable for up to 60 days in poultry litter (Vindevogel et al, 1976) and may potentially be spread between farms through airborne transmission (Zhao et al, 2013). With one UV lamp on, the airborne IBDV was inactivated by 1.5 orders of magnitude, yielding a 72.35% reduction.…”

“…Infectious bursal disease virus is a nonenveloped double-stranded RNA virus that causes chicken immunosuppression and high mortality in birds (Hirai et al, 1979;Sharma et al, 2000). This viral species was recently recovered in the exhaust air of an experimental broiler room (Zhao et al, 2013) and is speculated to be airborne transmissible between farms (Edgar and Cho, 1976;Lasher and Shane, 1994;Sanchez et al, 2005).…”

“…The airborne microorganisms emitted and their components (e.g., endotoxins and lipoteichoic acid) may not only trigger inflammatory respiratory dysfunction in humans and negative immune responsiveness in animals but some pathogenic species are also suspected to be aerially transmittable between farms, which is especially concerning in countries with highdensity livestock farming (e.g., the U.K. and The Netherlands). Some infectious viruses have been detected at the exhaust outlet of animal houses (Zhao et al, 2013) and other highly infectious diseases have been proven to be spread through airborne transmission (Gloster et al, 2003). Effective technologies are needed to reduce microbial emissions and prevent pathogen transmission, thereby safeguarding animal and human health in the vicinity.…”

Molecular Characterization of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus From Commercial Poultry in Pakistan

“…Remaining amino acid alterations were mostly conservative in nature [54][55][56][57]. The changes in the hydrophilic regions of the VP2 protein were important as they are indicative of continuous changes going on in viral genome [58][59][60][61][62].…”