Abstract:
Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is a highly contagious disease of young chickens between
3 and 6 weeks of age. It is caused by infectious bursal disease virus(IBDV) which
occursworldwide affecting livelihoods of resource - compromised poor communities. In
Zambia, there is scantily documented information on the epidemiology of IBD. In-depth
knowledge on the epidemiology of IBD is needed for effective control measures. This
study aimed at molecular detection of circulating IBDV strains, andknowledge assessment
of farmers about the disease in Ndola, Kitwe, Kalulushi, Luanshya and Mufulira districts
of the Copperbelt province. A cross-sectional purposive study was carried out in the
Copperbelt province from February to March, 2015 to determine the occurrence of IBD.
The identification of IBDV was done by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) targeting the hypervariable domain (VP2-HVR). A semi-structured
questionnaire was administered to 77 respondents who presented poultry related cases to
clinics in the selected districts and the information collected was analyzed by statistical
package for social scientists (SPSS). A total of 30 bursa of Fabricius samples from young
chickens that presented with clinical signs suggestive of IBD were examined. The RTPCR
results revealed two positive samples for IBDV VP2-HVR domain. Questionnaire
study revealed that 70.0% (n=10) of the respondents did not know what disinfectant to
use; 75.0% (n=57) felt assigning more than one individual to a flock of chickens did not
compromise biosecurity whereas 20.3% (n=15) knew the important clinical signs of IBD,
compared to 60.1% (n=46) and 70.7% (n=54) that knew clinical signs related to
chronicrespiratory disease and ND respectively. Ninety six percent (n= 73) adhered to
vaccine cold chain practices. These findings indicate that IBD viruses circulated in the
Copperbelt province and chicken farmers had low awareness of IBD and respective disease control measures. Further studies to characterize the circulating IBD viruses to unravel more information for the rational IBD control strategy in Zambia are required.
