Economic consequences of CAV infections
The immunosuppresive effects of CAV on broilers are economically significant.
Broiler chickens
CAV is immunosuppressive, affected flocks suffer from an increase of opportunistic and/or secondary infections. Broilers may perform badly due to poor feed conversion and reduced weight gain. It has been proven that even flocks that may appear normal but suffered from a subclinical CAV infection performed less well when compared to flocks that remained negative throughout the growing period. Also infections may result in increased condemnation rates at slaughter.
The effect of a subclinical CAV infection on the performance parameters of broilers was well documented by Mc Nulty et al.
| Effect of CAV infection on Performance – % of deviation from the commercial average |
| Flock CAV status | % net income | Bonus % | Feed conversion | Weight % | Mortality % |
| – | +2.4 | +2.7 | -0.4 | +0.8 | -0.16 |
| + | -10.6 | -8.8 | +1.6 | -1.7 | +0.24 |
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