Prevalence of antibodies to different avian paramyxoviruses in commercial poultry in the United States.

Abstract

Avian paramyxoviruses (APMVs) other than Newcastle disease virus have been isolated from feral avian species and have the potential to cause clinical disease. The objective of this study was to investigate the APMV antibody prevalence in commercial poultry settings. Sera from 100 commercial, layer-type and broiler-type (broiler-breeder and broiler) chicken flocks were analyzed on a random basis. Pooled serum samples from each flock were tested for the presence of antibodies to APMV-1, -2, -3, -4, -6, -7, -8, and -9 by hemagluttination inhibition (HI) test. Reactions with HI titers > or = 1:64 were shown by APMV-1 (71%), APMV-2 (15%), APMV-3 (35%), APMV-4 (26%), APMV-6 (45%), APMV-7 (27%), APMV-8 (31%), and APMV-9 (48%). In the presence of a high HI titer for APMV-1 (1024), we obtained positive HI titers for most of the other APMV subtypes, thus implicating that sensitive techniques need to be developed to detect the prevalence of these subtypes in commercial poultry.