Serological Survey For Antibodies Against Avian Influenza Virus In Chickens In Khartoum State

A serological survey was carried outto investigate the presence of avian influenza (AI) antibodies in Khartoum state. A total of 190 serum samples were collected from chickens from different farms in Khartoum state. The serum samples consisted of 73 sera collected from broiler chicken and 117 sera from layer chicken. Ten serum samples were collected from poultry workers at these farms. The sera were tested by agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test, the results showed that 51 sera out of 73(69.9) from broiler were positive and 56 sera out of 117 (47.9) from layer were positive for AI. The results of testing sera collected from poultry laborers by AGID showed that 7out of 10 (70%) sera were positive for AI. The hem agglutination inhibition (HI) test was applied to the same sera which were positive by AGID test for sub typing the antibodies using H5N1 and H7N3 antigens. The results of sera collected from layer chickens when tested against H7N3 antigen revealed that 14 out of 34(41.2%) sera were positive from Khartoum North area and 4 out of 22 (18.2%) sera were positive from Khartoum area. The results of testing sera from broiler chickens using the same antigen showed that only three serum samples were positive from Khartoum North area and there are no positive sera from Omdurman area. The sera when tested against H5N1 revealed that only one serum sampleis positive from layer chicken from Khartoum area. The results of testing sera collected from poultry laborers by HI test showed that 4 out of 7 (57.1%) sera were positive against H7N3 antigen, when the same sera weretested against H5N1 antigen the results revealedthat no antibodies were detected in human