Economic losses due to Newcastle disease in layers in subtropical India

Newcastle disease (ND) is a highly contagious viral disease of birds causing immense direct and indirect losses to the poultry industry. Various studies conducted across the world suggested that ND has been creating havoc in the poultry industry. Over the past decade, India has been reporting cases of ND outbreaks every year. Therefore, a retrospective study was conducted to estimate the losses due to ND and identify the factors influencing those losses. The primary data was obtained directly from farmers employing multistage purposive random sampling. A modified methodology was employed to provide an aggregate figure accounting for the approximate losses due to ND over the period of 72 weeks of the commercial layers' life cycle. The results of the study indicated that the losses due to morbidity were much higher compared to those due to mortality in ND-infected birds. The major factors influencing ND losses on the farms were drop in egg production, mortality of birds due to ND, duration of ND infection, reduction in feed intake, age at which birds get infected with ND, and experience of poultry farmers in the poultry business.