Important Information: Before buying young birds from anyone ask where the birds originally came from and if they have been vaccinated by the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture for ILT. (Birds should have wingbands colour coded for the current year and be registered with the Department of Agriculture.) Make sure the parent birds come from healthy stock and haven't been purchased from questionable sources that do not practice proper biosecurity, or from cattle auctions. ILT or Infectious Laryngotracheitis is a very infectious respiratory disease of poultry that is found mostly in chickens. There are many diseases that affect poultry, however ILT is of particular importance because it 1) can cause severe illness and death in a large proportion of a flock, 2) can cause a severe economic loss in commercial flocks through death, disease and decreased production, 3) cannot be treated, 4) remains in a carrier state in the flock after recovery, and most importantly, 5) is preventable.
Birds may recover from the illness within 2 weeks but can remain carriers of the virus for long periods of time afterwards. These carrier birds become a threat for other poultry owners. A bird that appears to be healthy may be introduced into a new flock and two weeks later all of the other birds are sick. The bird carrying the disease still appears healthy (as it has some immunity from its first infection) and, therefore, can create confusion when it is explained that an otherwise healthy appearing bird is the cause of illness in all of the others. Several outbreaks of ILT have been reported in the province of Nova Scotia already this year. It is up to all of us as responsible poultry owners to control the spread through proper biosecurity and poultry purchases.