Where and when have Newcastle disease outbreaks occured in Australia?
• September 1998 – western Sydney and Rylstone, New South Wales; • April 1999 – Mangrove Mountain, New South Wales; • August 1999 – western Sydney, New South Wales; • January/February 2000 – western Sydney and Tamworth, New South Wales; • May 2002 – Meredith, Victoria; and • October 2002 – western Sydney, New South Wales. Each outbreak was successfully eradicated. In most cases the number of farms involved was small. The Mangrove Mountain outbreak required destruction and disposal of 1.9 million birds from 32 commercial flocks as well as several non-commercial flocks. In each case the ND virus is thought to have evolved from certain low-virulence Australian strains that caused little, if any, disease. There is no evidence that Australian outbreaks have been caused by a virus recently introduced from overseas.
