Avian Leukosis

[ggrap]

Hello. Had a friend tell me today that after having 3 hens die over a couple weeks, she had a necropsy done and it turned out to be Avian Leukosis. I am trying to educate myself more about diseases and illnesses this year.

Anyone have experience with this, and how is it transmitted? Vet told her no birds on or off her farm until the entire flock was "gone".

Thanks!

 

[speckledhen]

Lymphois Leukosis is a virus that can be transmitted through the egg to chicks. It has symptoms like Mareks, but affects a different age group, as I understand it. There is no cure for it once it gets in your flock.

Here is a good article on it:

http://www.poultryhub.org/bird-health-and-disease/lymphoid-leukosis/

The virus can be vertically transmitted (passed directly from parent to offspring). Hens with subclinical disease usually shed virus or viral antigen into the albumen of eggs. Chickens infected at hatching shed virus their entire lives. Horizontal transmission (spread from bird to bird) can occur by the faecal-oral route but is of secondary importance to vertical transmission. The causative viruses are rapidly inactivated at ambient temperature and on exposure to most disinfectants.​