Evaluation of Newcastle Disease Vaccination Regime for Commercial Guinea Fowls Production in Kumasi, Ghana

Abstract

^{Newcastle disease vaccination regimes commonly used in the control of the disease in chicken abound in literature in most endemic countries however such in guinea fowl has not being previously reported especially in Ghana. This study was conducted to evaluate waning of maternal antibodies and Newcastle disease vaccination regime in keets at a private Farm in Kumasi, Ghana. 3000 keets (1000 per group) were used for the study. Group A keets were vaccinated with Hitchner B1 strain (HB 1) on day 1, Group B keets on day 7 and Group C keets were not vaccinated and served as the control group for maternal antibody waning. The antibody titres of the birds were determined from day 1 to day 28 using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test and the mean titres were calculated. The maternal antibodies waned to a very low level at day 14 while at day 28, keets in Group A produced the highest average titre of 5067.3 compared to Group B and Group C (p<0.05). In conclusion, vaccination of keets at day 1 seems to produce better immune response even with the presence of maternal antibodies.}