Marek’s Disease Is a Threat for Large Scale Poultry Production

Abstract

Marek’s disease (MD) is one of the widespread infectious diseases that causes huge losses in large-scale poultry production. This is due to weight loss, poorer feed conversion and an increased number of deaths among infected birds. The etiological agent is a Marek’s disease virus (MDV) belonging to the Herpesviridae family. It is mainly described in poultry, however, it is also found in geese. There are three MDV serotypes, and four patotypes within serotype 1. Currently, Marek’s disease is very rare in its classical form. There are non-specific clinical symptoms, and anatomopathological changes are mainly observed in the liver, spleen and the reproductive system. This may be due to the evolution in the pathogenicity of MDV field strains over the past several decades. The presence of MDV and number of molecular diagnostic tests based on the detection of viral nucleic acids and viral proteins is already found in birds that have several weeks old. Laboratory diagnostics are based mainly on molecular biology (mainly PCR) methods. The only relatively effective method instead of biosecurity measures, of preventing MD is prophylactic vaccination of 1-day-old chickens or in ovo vaccination. Nevertheless, Marek’s disease is still recorded in poultry flocks around the world, with estimated losses reaching several million dollars.