Screening of rural scavenging birds for the presence of detectible protective Newcastle disease antibodies in some selected rural communities of Plateau State

A sero-prevalence study was conducted to determine the level of detectible protective antibody titre using the haemagglutination (HA) and haemagglutination inhibition (HI) tests. Serum samples were collected from four hundred and eighty seven unvaccinated rural scavenging chickens from five selected rural communities, including Du, Chaha, Chakarum, Chele and Ngo’hong in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau state. The result revealed a very low mean titre ≤2 log2, which explained the unusually high morbidity and mortality rate experienced during seasonal outbreaks. There is an urgent need to initiate control measures in rural areas through the establishment of a strategic vaccination programme against new castle disease outbreaks. This will reduce the incidence of the disease to a large extent.