Prevalence of avian leukosis virus infection and its effect on growth and production performance in Vanashree, a slow growing chicken strain

Santosh  Haunshi; MADDULA RAMKOTI  REDDY; KANNAKI  RAMASAMY; RAJKUMAR  ULLENGALA; ANEET  KOUR; LESLIE LEO  PRINCE; RUDRA NATH  CHATTERJEE

doi:10.56093/ijans.v95i10.158665

Authors

Santosh Haunshi ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Telangana, India
MADDULA RAMKOTI REDDY ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Telangana, India
KANNAKI RAMASAMY ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Telangana, India
RAJKUMAR ULLENGALA ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Telangana, India
ANEET KOUR ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Telangana, India
LESLIE LEO PRINCE ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Telangana, India
RUDRA NATH CHATTERJEE ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Telangana, India

https://doi.org/10.56093/ijans.v95i10.158665

Keywords:

Avian Leukosis, Performance, Slow-growing chicken, Sex

Abstract

Avian leukosis is one of the important neoplastic viral diseases of poultry, which affects the economic traits negatively. A study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of avian leukosis virus (ALV) infection in male and female birds of Vanashree, a slow-growing native chicken strain. The prevalence of ALV infection over 11 generations was studied by screening for ALV shedding through the detection of p27 antigen from cloacal swab samples using an ELISA test. The growth and production performance of hens tested negative and positive for ALV shedding were compared using the data collected over the generations. A higher prevalence of ALV infection was observed in hens with an average of 19.91% as compared to the average of 1.65% infection in cocks. There was no significant effect of ALV infection on growth traits recorded at different ages up to 40 weeks. However, the ALV infection had a significant effect on egg production recorded up to 40 weeks. Egg production was significantly less (4.58 eggs) in ALV-positive hens when compared to ALV-negative hens. There was a 7.25% reduction in egg production in ALV-positive birds. However, there was no significant effect of ALV infection on age at first egg and egg weights. The study concluded that the sex of the birds seems to play an important role in the susceptibility to ALV infection in slow-growing chickens. Although ALV infection did not affect the growth, age at sexual maturity and egg weight traits, it reduced the egg production numbers in affected birds.

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