ICAR AIEEA (PG): Master's entrance, Veterinary Science and Animal Sciences · India · NTA for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe diseases of commercial and backyard poultry: viral, bacterial, parasitic, nutritional and toxic.
In the exams: ICAR AICE-JRF Medicine and Pathology units; China comprehensive paper poultry 20; SAVC poultry 15
ICAR AIEEA (PG) — Code 13 Veterinary Science
Recall of causal agents, families, characteristic lesions (proventricular haemorrhage, bursal lesions, nerve enlargement, bronze liver, caecal cores), inclusion bodies, egg inoculation routes, vaccine strains and routes, and Eimeria species by intestinal site.
How our questions for ICAR AIEEA spread across the units of Avian Pathology. Difficulty: 16 easy, 20 medium, 5 hard.
| Infectious bursal disease | 5 | |
| Newcastle disease | 4 | |
| Marek's disease | 4 | |
| Coccidiosis | 4 | |
| Avian influenza | 3 | |
| Infectious bronchitis | 3 | |
| Avian leucosis | 3 | |
| Mycoplasmosis | 3 | |
| Pullorum disease and fowl typhoid | 3 | |
| Mycotoxicosis | 3 | |
| Infectious laryngotracheitis | 2 | |
| Hydropericardium syndrome | 2 | |
| Necrotic enteritis | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Mean death time (MDT) of chick embryos for an APMV-1 isolate is 52 hours. How is the isolate classified?
A. Velogenic
MDT under 60 hours indicates velogenic strains, 60-90 hours mesogenic, and over 90 hours lentogenic. Students often reverse the scale, thinking a short time means a mild virus; in fact the faster the embryos die, the more virulent the virus.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed.; WOAH Terrestrial Manual, Newcastle disease chapter
Under the WOAH definition, an avian influenza virus is highly pathogenic if its intravenous pathogenicity index (IVPI) in six-week-old chickens is greater than:
B. 1.2
HPAI is defined as IVPI greater than 1.2, or at least 75% mortality in 4-8-week chickens inoculated intravenously, or an H5/H7 virus with a polybasic HA0 cleavage site. 0.7 is the ICPI threshold for Newcastle disease, the usual swap; 3.0 is the maximum IVPI score and 2.0 the maximum ICPI.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed.; WOAH Terrestrial Manual and Code, avian influenza chapters
Which test detects antibodies to any influenza A virus regardless of haemagglutinin subtype?
A. Agar gel immunodiffusion using nucleoprotein/matrix antigen
AGID and ELISA detect antibody to the conserved nucleoprotein and matrix proteins shared by all influenza A viruses. HI with H5 antigen detects only H5 antibody, and neuraminidase inhibition identifies the N subtype; IVPI measures virulence, not antibody.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed.; WOAH Terrestrial Manual and Code, avian influenza chapters
Which viral protein carries the main virus-neutralising epitopes and determines the serotype of infectious bronchitis virus?
A. S1 subunit of the spike glycoprotein
S1 carries the neutralising and HI epitopes and differs between serotypes, so S1 sequencing is used for genotyping. The nucleocapsid protein is conserved and underlies group-specific ELISA; S2 is the more conserved stalk that anchors the spike.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed.; Pattison et al., Poultry Diseases, 6th ed.
Infectious bursal disease virus belongs to which family?
B. Birnaviridae
IBDV is an avibirnavirus, a non-enveloped virus with two segments of double-stranded RNA. Reoviridae also have double-stranded RNA but with 10-12 segments, the usual confusion; Paramyxoviridae and Picornaviridae have single-stranded RNA.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed.; Pattison et al., Poultry Diseases, 6th ed.
The primary target cells of infectious bursal disease virus are:
D. Actively dividing IgM-bearing B lymphocytes
IBDV replicates in immature B cells of the bursa. CD4+ T cells are transformed in Marek's disease; erythroid precursors are destroyed by chicken anaemia virus; ciliated tracheal cells are the target of IB virus.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed.; Pattison et al., Poultry Diseases, 6th ed.
From which tissue is fully infectious, cell-free Marek's disease virus released into the environment?
B. Feather follicle epithelium
In most tissues MDV is cell-associated, but the feather follicle epithelium produces enveloped infectious virus shed in dander, which remains infectious in dust for months. The trigeminal ganglion is the latency site of ILT virus, and the oviduct is a site of vertical transmission for other agents.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed.; Pattison et al., Poultry Diseases, 6th ed.
Which Eimeria species of the chicken causes haemorrhagic lesions confined to the caeca?
D. Eimeria tenella
E. tenella develops in the caeca, causing bloody caecal contents and later caecal cores. E. acervulina affects the duodenum, E. maxima the mid-intestine and E. brunetti the lower intestine and rectum.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed.; Taylor, Coop and Wall, Veterinary Parasitology, 4th ed.
Necrotic enteritis of broilers is caused by:
A. Clostridium perfringens
Necrotic enteritis is caused by NetB-producing C. perfringens. C. colinum causes ulcerative enteritis (quail disease), C. botulinum causes botulism (limberneck) and C. septicum is associated with gangrenous dermatitis.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed.; Rood et al. (2018) Anaerobe 53: 5-10
Two-week-old chicks from one hatchery gasp and die. Post-mortem shows multiple yellow-white caseous nodules in the lungs and air sacs, and a wet mount shows septate branching hyphae. How does this differ from mycotoxicosis?
C. It is aspergillosis: infection by inhaled Aspergillus fumigatus spores, not poisoning by a fungal metabolite in feed
Aspergillosis (brooder pneumonia) is infection with fungal growth in lesions, usually from contaminated hatchers or litter; mycotoxicosis is poisoning by toxins in feed with no fungus in the tissues. Aflatoxin, ochratoxin and T-2 do not produce fungal nodules in the lungs.
Further reading: Swayne (ed.), Diseases of Poultry, 14th ed., mycotoxicoses chapter; Pattison et al., Poultry Diseases, 6th ed.
Ten here, 41 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AIEEA in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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