Evaluation of microbial diversity, economic implication and level of awareness of possible causes of runting leading to hatchery condemnation in a commercial poultry hatchery hub
2025
Adebowale I. Adebiyi | Ismail Adeyemo | Abiokpoyanam P. Batubo | Mike Lawani | Daniel O. Oluwayelu | Victoria J. Smyth
Abstract Enteric viruses create a favourable milieu for other microbes, potentially increasing susceptibility to infections and causing significant economic losses. However, despite the substantial economic impact of these production diseases on poultry production, these claims are seldom backed by empirical evidence. It is therefore essential to assess the microbial diversity, economic implication and level of awareness of possible causes of runting leading to hatchery condemnation in a commercial poultry hatchery hub with earlier reports of detected high levels of chicken astrovirus. Hence, 158 samples from day-old broilers were tested for enteric bacteria and viruses, and antibiotic susceptibility. Also, 318 respondents were assessed for level of awareness of possible causes of runting and cost–benefit analysis of hatchery operations were performed. Enterococcus (60.8%; 96/158) and staphylococcus (3.8%; 6/158) species were the main identified bacteria and resistance to the antibiotics tested particularly ampicillin was common in all the sites. Group-1 serotype fowl adenovirus (FAdV-4 and FAdV-5) were seen. Cost analysis showed a total loss varied between 647,520 and 1,059,640- Nigeria naira (1,683.92 and 2,389.45 USD) per production cycle across the different sites. Also, there was a low awareness of possible causes of runting among the respondents which may play a role against appropriate measures to reduce hatchery diseases. These findings underscore the importance of considering virus-bacteria co-infection in poultry infections to reduce misuse or overuse of antibiotics and allow for effective management of infections.
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