Duck Plague

Abstract

Duck plague (DP), also known as duck virus enteritis or anatid herpesvirus infection, was first recognized as an entity in the Netherlands (Baudet, 1923), although it was mistakenly diagnosed as fowl plague (an influenza A virus infection) at the time (Jansen, 1961). The virus was isolated and the name Duck Plague was proposed by Jansen and Kunst (1949). DP has since been diagnosed in many countries of Europe and Asia (Suwatviroj et al., 1977; Spieker, 1978; Bergmann et al., 1979; Sarker, 1980; Prip et al., 1983). It is regarded as an exotic disease in North America and Newcomb (1968) discussed the possible routes of its introduction. The first recognized occurrence in North America was among commercial domestic ducks on Long Island, New York, in January, 1967. The first diagnosis in free-flying waterfowl followed very shortly [a Mute Swan found dead in the same area in February, 1967 (Leibovitz and Hwang, 1968)]. Subsequently, the disease has occurred in many states in the USA and several provinces in Canada. The majority of these occurrences have been in captive or semi-captive waterfowl and many have involved the mixture of domestic, semitame, captive and free-flying waterfowl that occur in urban parks and avicultural collections. A similar situation has occurred in the United Kingdom, where there has been one outbreak in commercial domestic ducks and geese, many in waterfowl collections, and none among free-flying birds (Gough and Alexander, 1990). Prip et al. (1983) reported an outbreak among wild Mallards in park in Denmark. There have been three major outbreaks recognized among free-flying wild birds in North America. The first, involving several hundred ducks, occurred in 1967 in Flanders Bay, New York, in association with the initial outbreak in domestic ducks (Leibovitz and Hwang, 1968). The second occurred at Lake Andes National Wildlife Refuge, South Dakota, during January-February, 1973, and resulted in the death of an estimated 42% of 100,000 Mallards and 3% of 9000 Canada Geese, plus lesser numbers of other species (Friend and Pearson, 1973). The third was on the Finger Lakes, New York during February to April, 1994 in which an estimated 1150 waterfowl from a population of about 50,000 died (Converse et al., 1994). Solitary cases of DP have been recognized in a Mallard in Saskatchewan (Wobeser and Docherty, 1987) and a Black Duck in Maryland (Brand and Docherty, 1988).