Infectious Bursal Disease! Has Anyone Had Experience With This?

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i had a beautiful four-month-old blue showgirl pullet suddenly die on the 10th of this month. No symptoms until the previous evening when i found her huddled on the ground. Took her to the vet and they gave her fluids and meds, she died the next morning. Because i had an incidence of disease in a separate flock (housed away from these birds) two months prior, i took her to UC Davis for a necropsy, afraid i may have cross-contaminated to this pen. Seems i did not. Just got a call (on a Sunday, mind you) from the Veterinarian conducting the necropsy. He found she had Infectious Bursal Disease, and was very concerned to know if any other chickens in my flock were sick.

i keep about 10 separate pens, and this little girl was housed with her other hatchlings - 3 boys and 1 girl. They were all hatched here from eggs collected from two different roosters and several hens (none of which have been sick). None of the remaining birds from her flock are sick. i'm very confused!

Where could this have come from? i have read and read as much as i can on the net. Several sites state that mealworms can carry this (!). i do buy and feed mealworms. i have also read that there is no cure and that it is very difficult to eliminate from a property. i was already on lock-down due to the health scare in December, but now it seems i must close my flock permanently. Everything i've read sounds very negative. If anyone can provide any information, insight, personal experience, i would really appreciate it.

The vet at UC Davis is still running tests and will be providing updates, but i am at a loss at to what i should do now to protect the rest of my flock. i can only assume that all of them have been exposed.

 

[pips&peeps]

I think that could be a "State Cull" disease, I'm not positive. Did you check to see if there was anything on First State about it?

Here's the link to the Merck Veterinary Manual about it:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/203100.htm&word=infectious,bursal,disease

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i didn't see anything on First State Vet on it. i did read the Merck.

i truly hope this does not result in a mandatory cull.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i just checked our state Dept of Agriculture website. This would be considered a "monitored condition" for commercial poultry operations. So, i think i'm safe on that aspect.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i wanted to do an update, in case anyone is interested. After i spoke with the vet at UC Davis, i left a frantic message for my vet. She called the vet at UC Davis, and turns out he "suspects" Infectious Bursal Disease, but nothing is conclusive. At this point, i have received 3 preliminary reports. They've ruled out Newcastle, salmonella, avian influenza, mg, ms, and very virulent strain of Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD).

Seems there are three three strains of IBD: classic virulent (high morbidity low mortality), subclinical (very little morbidity and no mortality), and very virulent (high morbidity and high mortality). Morbidity means illness and mortality means death.

i have read (and was told by the vet at UC Davis) that IBD causes high mortality in chicks 3-6 weeks of age. Meredith was four months. It would seem that if she had any of the strains, it would be the very virulent, as she died very quickly. But the perplexing thing is that all her hatch-mates are perfectly fine AND the preliminary tests for the very virulent strain have all come back negative.

They are still running virology tests which take a while. i hope to have an answer soon. In the interim, because i hate the waiting, i plan on testing all her buddies for the IBD. i think i will probably get these results back before a final from UC Davis.

One of the things that the vet noted in his reports was that Meredith had a very vaulted skull and the top part of her brain was only covered by a thin layer of skin. It very well may be that she boinked her head and all this is due to that, but i am determined to know the cause.

i sure wish i had pictures of her, she was so pretty. She had a lovely long neck, the perfect round crest, and a beautiful blue/grey color. i had high hopes of breeding her, as she would have made beautiful babies. At least i have her brother who has all the same attributes. Sure wish i still had her.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Wanted to do one last update. i spoke to the vet at UC Davis a couple days ago. Everything came back negative. Meredith did not have Infectious Bursal Disease, or any of the other diseases they check for (MG, MS, END, Infectious Bronchitis, avian influenza, i don't know what all else). This is a tremendous relief, as IBD is extremely hard to eradicate. If that was on my property, i think i would have let the rest of my chickens live out their lives then thrown in the towel.

i thanked the vet for all his hard work, commenting that it was wonderful to have all those tests run at no cost. He said he wished more people would take advantage of their program. As for me, i am now working on integrating Meredith's only sister, Sydney, into a flock. Poor thing has been alone for a month.

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

That's great news!!! And this should be a lesson to us all to be proactive and take advantage of local universities and state agencies to test for disease in suspicious deaths.