Page 50 - Avian Virology: Current Research and Future Trends

Newcastle Disease Virus

Siba K. Samal* 2

Department of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maryland, College Park,
MD, USA.
*Correspondence: ssamal@umd.edu
https://doi.org/10.21775/9781912530106.02

Abstract in Ranikhet, India in 1927 (Edwards, 1928); in Ceylon, Sri
Newcastle disease (ND) is a highly contagious avian disease Lanka, in 1927 (Crawford, 1931); in Manila, Philippines, in 1927
with worldwide distribution that causes severe economic losses (Rodier, 1928); in Fusan, Japan, in 1929 (Ochi and Hashimoto,
in the poultry industry. ND is a notifiable disease throughout 1929) and in Melbourne, Australia in 1930 (Albiston and Gorrie,
the world. The economic impact is not only due to loss of 1942). In a short time, the disease was reported in many parts of
birds, but also due to trade restrictions and embargoes placed the world and was recognized as a new disease of poultry. In most
on areas and countries where the outbreaks have occurred. In of cases, a local name was given to identify the disease, but the
many developing countries, ND is enzootic, and the disease name ‘Newcastle disease’ remained most popular and is still used.
has the greatest impact on villages where the livelihood of Although it is not known when ND first appeared, there
people depends on poultry farming. Current vaccines provide are evidences that ND may have been prevalent as early as
protection from clinical signs and mortality but do not pre- 1898. The unknown disease that wiped out all the domestic
vent virus infection and subsequent virus shedding. Therefore, fowl in the Western Isles of Scotland in 1898 was probably
development of an optimal vaccine is a high priority. ND is ND (Macpherson, 1956). The exact origin of Newcastle disease
caused by virulent strains of Avian orthoavulavirus 1, which are virus (NDV) is not known, but three possible theories have
called Newcastle disease virus (NDV). NDV is an enveloped, been proposed (Hanson, 1972). The first possibility is that
non-segmented, negative-sense RNA virus belonging to the major mutation of a precursor virus of low virulence resulted in
genus Orthoavulavirus in the family Paramyxoviridae. NDV has virulent NDV. A recent phylogenetic tree indicated that NDV
been used as a model virus to study the molecular biology of probably diverged from avian paramyxovirus 2 (APMV-2) at
paramyxoviruses. Many of the fundamental properties of para- approximately 1766 (Fan et al., 2017). The second possibil-
myxovirus biology are founded on studies of NDV. In recent ity is that NDV was present in chicken populations of south
years, NDV has drawn a lot of research interest not only because East Asia before 1926, but it was not noticed until large scale
it is an important pathogen of poultry, but also because it is an commercial poultry farming developed in the first half of the
oncolytic agent and a potential vaccine vector for human and twentieth century. The third possibility is that the virus was
animal pathogens. This chapter reviews our current knowledge enzootic in a wild bird species and by chance it was transferred
of NDV as an infectious agent, the immune response to infec- from that species to poultry.
tion and its epizootiology, prevention and control measures. In the USA, a new respiratory and nervous systems disease
in poultry was first reported in California by Stover (1940),
which was later identified as ND (Beach, 1944). However, there
History is evidence of ND in the Eastern USA as early as 1938 (Beau-
Newcastle disease was first recorded on the island of Java in Indo- dette and Hudson, 1956). It was interesting that the disease was
nesia by Kraneveld in 1926 (Kraneveld, 1926). In the same year, much milder and had a mortality rate of about 15% compared
a disease with similar characteristics was reported on a farm near with 95–100% mortality rates reported from other parts of the
the seaport town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England by Doyle world. It was suggested that NDV, which caused two major
(1927). He showed that the disease was caused by a filterable clinically known forms of ND in chickens (Asiatic and American)
virus and was different from fowl plague (now known as highly originally, existed in different species of wild birds (Shope, 1964).
pathogenic avian influenza). He named the disease ‘Newcastle From those wild species, there were probably separate ‘escapes’
disease’ (ND) temporarily. into domestic chickens, the virulent form in most parts of the
ND was also recognized in Korea in 1926 (Kanno et al., 1929); world, and the mild form in the USA.