Best practices for poultry respiratory health management

Poultry respiratory diseases, such as infectious bronchitis and Newcastle disease, require proactive approaches to vaccination. “Because they are RNA viruses, there is no treatment option, so we have to control them,” said Dr. Roy Jacob, key account veterinarian for Boehringer Ingelheim Poultry Division. “It’s more challenging when it comes to infectious bronchitis.” A coronavirus, infectious bronchitis can evolve very rapidly, making control strategies an ever-moving target. New variants or strains of the virus seem to emerge every five to eight years. “It can mutate and produce new serotypes or a new variant every few years. That makes it challenging, and we need to be on top of vaccination, biosecurity and prevention because there is no treatment,” he added. Read more