EVALUATION OF MATERNAL ANTIBODY LEVELS FOR ESTABLISHING THE VACCINATION PROGRAM AGAINST NEWCASTLE DISEASE IN OSTRICH CHICKS

摘要

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is known as one of the most important endemic viral pathogen for various avian species such as ostrich, in Iran. Therefore, establishing a routine vaccination program against ND in ostrich flocks would be useful in order to reduce the danger of this infection. Newcastle disease occurs among the ostriches and leads to high rate of mortality while most of the losses are among the youngest ones. This experiment was designed to follow up the changes of maternal antibody in ostrich chicks during the first weeks of their life. At this point of view, 700 one day old ostrich chicks were monitored and every seven days interval 10 blood samples were taken regularly and the titers of maternal antibody in their sera were studied. The haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test was used to evaluate the amount of anti-ND antibody. After hatching this study followed up to 49^th day. Due to our findings, the day 30 is recommended as a proper time to start the vaccination program against ND in flocks of ostrich chicks with maternal antibody.