September 23, 2009
Netherlands reports infectious coryza outbreak in poultry layer farms
The Animal Health Service Deventer in the Netherlands has reported an outbreak of infectious coryza in six layer farms. Farmers are anxious as the bacterium seems very contagious.
Normally merely one or two cases of infectious coryza appear in the Netherlands per year. The disease occurs predominantly in warm climates for instance as in South America, Africa and the Middle and Far East.
Amongst the six infected farms are regular as well as free-range farms. No indication exists that there is a difference in infection risk between these types of farms.
The disease causes a decrease in egg production and mortality sometimes up to 100 percent. Treatment with tetracyclines has shown good results. However, eggs from treated animals are not to be delivered for four weeks.
