Serological evidence of chicken infectious anemia in layer and broiler chickens in Grenada, West Indies.

Aim: Chicken infectious anemia virus (CIAV) causes immunosuppression leading to serious losses in chickens. Though CIAV has been reported in commercial chickens from many countries of the world, no information is available on CIAV from Grenada. This paper reports the result of a serological survey of CIAV in layer and broiler chickens in Grenada. Materials and Methods: A total of 226 serum samples from layers and 233 from broiler chickens were tested for CIAV antibodies using CIAV/ELISA (IDEXX, West brook, Maine, USA). Results: The results showed seroprevalence for CIAV in layers at 92.9% (95% confidence interval, 89.55% to 96.25%) with a parish seropositivity in the range 89.28% - 100%, whereas in broilers overall seroprevalence was 58.3% (95% confidence interval, 51.97% to 64.63%) with a range of 2.85%-92.85%, according to parish. Conclusion: A high prevalence of antibodies to CIAV in commercial chickens indicates a CIAV contaminated environment in Grenada. This in turn emphasizes the need for vaccination of chickens against CIAV and further research on the impact of this disease in Grenada.