Incremental benefits of complete vaccination against newcastle disease in layer farms in Haryana

The state of Haryana has been the worst affected with maximum number of total Newcastle Disease (ND) cases reported (66.52%) in the country during 2010-2019. Therefore, a study was undertaken to estimate the total economic losses due to ND in the commercial layer farms along with incremental benefits of vaccination against ND in Haryana based on primary data obtained from 90 farmers of Panchkula district following multistage purposive random sampling over a period of 72 weeks. The confirmation of ND and status of vaccination against ND on the layer farms was done based on a standard checklist of symptoms duly validated by the experts. The layer farms were categorised into 3 categories namely, (57) completely vaccinated, (33) ill-vaccinated farms, whereas none of the layer farm was un-vaccinated against ND. The completely vaccinated farms were those on which vaccination was done strictly as per schedule, and the ill-vaccinated farms were those which defaulted from the schedule or on which vaccination against ND was incomplete. The maj ority of the layer farms (74) were ND-infected. The proportion of ND outbreaks on ill-vaccinated farms (97%) was comparatively higher than the completely vaccinated farms (73.7%). The occurrence of ND on the farm was significantly associated with the vaccination status against ND (S«²= 7.73, p= 0.005). A significant difference was observed in the vaccination cost incurred (t= 2.103, p= 0.038), mortality of birds due to ND (t= -1.943, p= 0.057), and the gross profits generated (t= 2.272, p= 0.026) on complete and ill-vaccinated farms. The overall incremental benefit of complete vaccination was estimated to be INR22 per bird over the incomplete vaccination. Therefore, it is suggested that poultry farmers must follow complete vaccination on their farms as a standard management practice.