Fowl pox

• Fowl pox is a highly infectious disease of poultry, fowl pox manifests in two forms
• The skin or cutaneous type characterized by the presence of wart-like eruptions on the unfeathered portions of the body, particularly the comb, wattles, and eyelids
• The diphtheritic or throat type manifests in the form of membranous patches in the mouth and throat.
• The viruses of fowl pox belong to the genus Avipoxvirus responsible for both form of the disease. The disease occurs more in the colder months of the year when the birds come in close contact with one another

Symptoms

• Affect the chicks and cause heavy mortality
• In older birds results in un thriftiness, reduction in egg production and loss in body weight
• Lesions appear on the un feathered parts of the head and legs
• Small blister-like spots appear on the face, comb, and wattles
• Light infection results in few scattered spots but heavy infection cover the face, comb and wattles with small black scabs.
• The diphtheritic form affects the mouth and throat, and yellow, pus-like patches appear
• The severely affected birds may lose their appetites, and production will diminish

Prevention and control 

• Vaccination of birds at 6 to 8 week of age
• Local application of tincture of iodine or solution of potassium permanganate over the lesions
• No specific cure is known for fowl pox
• Mosquitoes mites and ticks should destroyed to check the spread of disease