Mustafa-Seckin Sandikli, Global Director Marketing Poultry at Ceva Animal Health, discusses how the poultry industry can tackle and sustain lasting resilience against Newcastle Disease
Newcastle Disease poses a severe and ongoing threat to poultry production worldwide, causing substantial losses in flock health, productivity, and profitability, devastating both commercial and small-scale farms, disrupting supply chains, and international trade. Understanding the disease’s impact on production and the economic consequences for poultry producers is crucial for developing effective control measures and safeguarding the industry’s future.
What is Newcastle Disease?
Newcastle Disease (ND) is a highly contagious disease that varies widely in the type and severity of its symptoms. Caused by virulent strains of Avian Paramyxovirus-1 (APMV-1), it causes severe respiratory, nervous, or digestive distress, with high mortality rates in poultry. It is one of the main barriers to international trade in poultry and poultry products, and its economic impact is enormous.
How does Newcastle Disease impact production?
Despite decades of progress in diagnostics, vaccination, and biosecurity, ND continues to cause significant economic losses, disrupt trade, and threaten food security in both developing and highly industrialised poultry systems. In areas where ND is enzootic, the mortality rates can reach up to 100% and usually occur between 21 and 28 days of age. Economic losses also include expenditures for extensive vaccination programmes, monitoring assays, performance losses due to post-vaccination reactions, and subsequent supportive medications.
In fact, this severe economic impact is due not only to direct losses on farms but also to intangible costs related to the lack of birds at the slaughterhouse and subsequent broken deals with customers, harming a company’s image as well as its bottom line. Even in countries free of the disease, there are losses of flocks’ performance due to the post-vaccination reactions caused by live attenuated ND vaccines.
As a result, better solutions are required regarding both implementations of biosecurity procedures and the availability of more efficacious vaccine solutions if the poultry industry wants to have real control of this disease.
Control of Newcastle Disease
Preventing mortality has long been the primary goal of ND vaccination programmes. While this remains essential, modern poultry systems demand more. With high stocking densities, rapid bird movements, and global trade connectivity, controlling virus transmission has become the true benchmark of success.
Today, effective Newcastle Disease prevention goes beyond simply keeping birds alive. It’s about breaking the cycle of infection within flocks by reducing virus shedding, enhancing early immunity, and ensuring consistent vaccine coverage from day one.
Recent advances in vaccine technology, particularly recombinant vector vaccines using herpesvirus of turkey (HVT) as a carrier, have transformed Newcastle Disease prevention. Unlike traditional live vaccines, which can be affected by maternal antibodies and uneven administration, vector vaccines deliver consistent, early active immunity, even in day-old chicks, by expressing crucial ND virus antigens in a controlled way. This early onset of protection is vital in high-pressure environments, reducing the vulnerable window where virus circulation, and thus transmission, is highest.
Vector vaccines stand out by not only preventing disease symptoms but also significantly curbing virus shedding, especially from oro-nasal and cloacal routes. Since cloacal shedding heavily contributes to environmental contamination, reducing it breaks transmission chains at the population level, offering measurable and sustained control rather than merely individual survival. This early, strong immunity limits virus spread, safeguarding flock health and stabilising production.
Moreover, precision in hatchery vaccination and ongoing monitoring using tools like qPCR ensures that every chick receives the correct dose, allowing rapid verification of vaccine success. By focusing on transmission control rather than just survival, poultry producers can minimise outbreak risks, support sustainable production, and future-proof their operations against Newcastle Disease in an interconnected world.
By shifting focus from survival alone to comprehensive transmission control backed by deliberate vaccine design and meticulous execution, poultry producers can safeguard flock health, stabilise production, and protect the future of poultry farming against Newcastle Disease in an increasingly connected world.
Newcastle Disease control: A continuous journey, not a destination
Despite significant technological advances, Newcastle Disease continues to pose a threat to poultry production worldwide, even in regions with robust infrastructure and extensive experience. Wildlife reservoirs, non-commercial flocks, and occasional biosecurity lapses constantly fuel the risk of outbreaks.
Within this context, prevention of ND is just part of a bigger puzzle. Controlling Newcastle Disease demands a multifaceted approach, combining stringent biosecurity measures, effective vaccination strategies, and continuous vigilance. While some regions have greatly reduced its impact, many parts of the world still face the persistent burden of this disease.
After a century of battling ND, one truth stands out: control of this disease is never complete. It is a continuous, dynamic challenge shaped by viral evolution, the realities of modern poultry production, and ongoing scientific innovation. Only through sustained vigilance and proactive preparedness, not complacency, can the poultry industry transform knowledge into lasting resilience against Newcastle Disease.
Please note, this article will also appear in our upcoming Animal Health Special Focus publication.