Prevalence of Newcastle disease virus and infectious bronchitis virus in avian influenza negative birds from live bird markets and backyard and commercial farms in Ivory-Coast

•Surveillance of avian influenza virus is found negative in backyard poultry farm.•Study of Newcastle disease and infectious bronchitis as differential diagnosis diseases•Newcastle disease virus seroprevalence is much lower than infectious bronchitis virus.•First study of infectious bronchitis revealed high prevalence in backyard poultry.•Both pathogens are endemic, cause economic losses and need to be fully evaluated.

Newcastle disease (ND) and infectious bronchitis (IB) are two major viral diseases affecting the respiratory tracts of birds and whose impact on African poultry is still poorly known. In the present study we aimed at assessing NDV and IBV prevalences in Ivory-Coast by molecular screening of > 22,000 avian swabs by nested PCR and by serology testing of close to 2000 avian sera from 2010 through 2012. The NDV and IBV seroprevalences over the study period reached 22% and 72%, respectively. We found 14.7% pooled swabs positive by PCR for NDV and 14.6% for IBV. Both pathogens are therefore endemic in Ivory-Coast. Economic losses associated with NDV and IBV infections still need to be evaluated.