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Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an acute infectious viral disease of livestock that occurs mainly in cattle although spillover of infections has been observed in sheep and pigs. Although FMD is endemic in Nigeria and has been reported in cattle, there is no evidence of the disease in pigs. For this study, blood samples collected between June and August 2013 from 364 apparently healthy, unvaccinated adult pigs slaughtered at a major abattoir in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria were screened for FMD virus serotype O antibodies using a commercial ELISA kit. The pigs (237 females and 127 males) were sourced from different parts of the region. Results showed an overall seroprevalence of 46.2% with 40.9% of the males and 49.0% of the females being positive. These findings suggest high prevalence of porcine FMD in slaughtered pigs at this abattoir, as the animals were not vaccinated. Thus, there is need for continuous surveillance of the disease among pigs in Nigeria. This will help to ascertain the burden of the disease s o that appropriate control measures can be put in place to curtail its further spread among pigs, and possible transmission between pigs and cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enteric viruses are known to have significant economic impact on poultry, especially broiler chicken flocks, because of production losses attributable to poor feed conversion and weight gain. To sustain the Nigerian poultry industry that contributes significantly to the livestock sector of the economy, there is a need to investigate commercial broiler flocks in the country for the presence of enteric viruses causing runting and stunting, growth retardation, and hatchery diseases. Gut contents were collected from 158 day-old and six 14-week old runted/stunted broiler chickens in commercial farms (ten) and hatcheries (six) located in Southwest Nigeria. The samples were examined for the presence of chicken astrovirus (CAstV), avian nephritis virus (ANV), avian rotavirus (AvRV), chicken parvovirus (ChPV), and turkey astroviruses (TAstV-1 and-2) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) whereas avian reovirus (ARV) and fowl adenovirus (FAdV) by virus isolation (VI), RT-PCR, and PCR. While CAstV was detected in all the birds (100%), sporadic detection of ANV (5%), and ChPV (5%) was observed in day-old and/or older birds. Four isolates were obtained by VI with one isolate being ARV positive and other three FAdV positive by RT-PCR and PCR, respectively. These findings strongly suggest CAstV as a major cause of runting and stunting as well as hatchery condemnations in commercial broilers in Southwest Nigeria, although co-infections with ANV, FAdV, ARV, and ChPV cannot be ruled out. In addition, the possible vertical and horizontal transmissions of these viruses are discussed.