Abstract

The main constraints to the development of indigenous chicken production in rural Ethiopia includes diseases, inadequate feed, predator, poor housing system and to a lesser extent limitation on financial and knowledge on management. In Ethiopia, the current rates of mortality due to diseases from day old to adult chicken are estimated to be 20-50%. Among the diseases: Fowl typhoid and pullorum disease are mentioned to cause heavy losses which are similar to other African countries. A cross sectional  study was conducted from November 2011 to March 2012 with the objectives of determining the prevalence of poultry Salmonellosis by serology and media culture isolation  from sero positive chicken  of different eco-types kept under intensified production system. From one hundred and fifty (150) intensively managed chickens from different eco-type of local and one exotic breed screened, fourteen (14) chickens (9.33%) were positive to S. gallinarum and/or S. pullorum antibodies. From fifty (50) exotic chickens teated, 3(6%) chickens gave positive result up on serum agglutination test. The remaining one hundred chickens from three eco-type of local breeds namely Cheffe, Horro and Jarso, were identified to be positive on agglutination test with 6(13.6%), 2(6.45%), 3(12%) prevalence respectively. Five of 14(35.7%) sero-positive cloacal swab samples collected from four eco-types chickens were culture posi­tive for S. gallinarum/S. pullorum. Of the 6 cloacal swab samples collected from Cheffe 3 (50%) and of the 3 cloacal swab samples collected from Jarso 2 (66%) were positive for S. gallinarum/ S. pullorum. The seropositivity and isolation of Salmonella in this study indicates the existence of fowl typhoid and pullorum disease in local and exotic breeds. The existence of the diseases especially in these local breeds of Ethiopia is of great concern as the diseases have the poten­tial for horizontal and vertical transmission. The detection of such economically important diseases both in the indigenous and exotic chickens demands detail epidemiological and bacteriological investigations so as to put appropriate control strategies in place

Key words: Chicken, prevalence, S. gallinarum, S. pullorum.