Epidemiological surveillance of H9N2 avian influenza virus infection among chickens in farms and backyards in Egypt 2015-2016

Vet World Vol.14 April-2021 Article-20

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(4): 949-955

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.949-955

Moataz Mohamed El-Sayed¹, Abdel Satar Arafa¹, Marwa Abdelmagid¹, and Ahmed Ibrahim Youssef²

1. Reference Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control on Poultry Production, Animal Health Research Institute, P.O. Box 264, Dokki, Giza 12618, Egypt.
2. Animal Hygiene and Zoonoses, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, 41522, Egypt.

Background and Aim: LPAI H9N2 infection among the poultry population in Egypt constitutes an additional risk factor in the poultry industry. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) in commercial and backyard chickens in Egypt. A 2-year survey of H9N2 AIV in chickens in farms and backyards was carried out in 2015 and 2016.

Materials and Methods: Direct detection of H9N2 AIV was performed by detecting the virus in tracheal and cloacal swabs using real-time polymerase chain reaction assays. A total of 20,421 samples were collected from chickens in farms and backyards in 26 Egyptian governorates.

Results: In 2015, cases positive for H9N2 AIV numbered 388 (3.9%) out of 10,016 examined cases. However, in 2016, the total positive cases numbered 447 (4.3%) out of 10,405 examined cases. The prevalence of H9N2 AIV among chickens on commercial farms was 4.6% out of the 16,666 chickens examined. The rates of positive cases in 2015 and 2016 were 4.4% (349/7884) and 4.7% (417/8782), respectively. The prevalence of H9N2 AIV in backyard chickens was 1.8% (69/3755). The rates of positive cases in backyard chickens were 1.8% (39/2132) in 2015 and again 1.8% (30/1623) in 2016. The highest positivity rate of H9N2 in chicken farms was in Beni-Suef (61.5%) (8/13), whereas the highest positivity rate in backyard chickens was in Fayoum (8.2%) (8/97).

Conclusion: The analysis of H9N2 infections among chicken farms and in backyard chickens in the different governorates of Egypt over 2 years indicated widespread infection throughout the country. Thus, continuous surveillance and implementation of control programs are warranted. Keywords: Egypt, H9N2 avian influenza virus, influenza, surveillance.

Keywords: Egypt, H9N2 avian influenza virus, influenza, surveillance.

How to cite this article: El-Sayed MM, Arafa AS, Abdelmagid M, Youssef AI (2021) Epidemiological surveillance of H9N2 avian influenza virus infection among chickens in farms and backyards in Egypt 2015-2016, Veterinary World, 14(4): 949-955.

Received: 30-10-2020 Accepted: 02-03-2021 Published online: 20-04-2021

Corresponding author: Ahmed Ibrahim Youssef E-mail: ahmed_ibrahim@vet.suez.edu.edu

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.949-955

Copyright: El-Sayed, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.