Infectious bronchitis in New Zealand chickens

Extract Infectious bronchitis is an acute and highly contagious viral disease which typically appears as an upper respiratory tract infection of young chickens (Hofstad, 1959b Hofstad, M. S. 1959b. “Infectious bronchitis”. In Diseases of Poultry, 4th ed., Edited by: Biester, H. E. and Schwarte, L. H. Ames: Iowa State Univ. Press. In [Google Scholar]). The causative agent also causes a drop in the quantity and quality of eggs laid by adult birds (McDougall, 1968 McDougall, J. S. 1968. Infectious bronchitis in laying fowls. Vet. Rec, 83: 84–86. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and severe nephritis, commonly termed “uraemia”, in young chickens (Cumming, 1969a Cumming, R. B. 1969a. The control of avian infectious bronchitis/nephrosis in Australia. Aust. vet. J., 45: 200–203. [Google Scholar]). In the United States and in Britain the virus is considered an important member of a group of respiratory agents which together are responsible for considerable economic loss to the poultry industry (McMartin, 1963 McMartin, D. A. 1963. Respiratory diseases of poultry other than Newcastle disease. Bull. Off. int. Epiz., 60: 959–968. [Google Scholar]). In Australia “uraemia” is a major disease hazard which in 1954 was considered the most important disease of the poultry industry in New South Wales (Hungerford, 1962 Hungerford, T. G. 1962. Diseases of Poultry, 3d ed., Sydney: Angus and Robertson. [Google Scholar]). There have been two reports of isolation of the virus in New Zealand (Pohl, 1967 Pohl, R. M. 1967. Infectious bronchitis in chickens. N.Z. vet. J., 15: 151–151. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]; 1968 Pohl, R. M. 1968. Uraemia (infectious nephritis) in chickens in New Zealand. N.Z. vet. J., 16: 188–188. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), but they contain only limited information on the diseases associated with the virus isolates.