Poultry industry in Egypt is facing various management problems along with infectious diseases including avian influenza (AI). Biosecurity measures, controlling poultry movements and inactivated vaccines were devised to combat the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAIV) H5N1. HPAIV are highly
susceptible to all disinfectants because they are enveloped viruses. Disinfection against avian influenza viruses at the poultry farms would significantly reduce and/or limit the chance for its transmission and outbreaks. Many disinfectants have been evaluated for their inactivation ability, but there is still a need for their evaluation under different conditions and in different ways. In the present study, representative disinfectants from chlorine and non-chlorine oxidizing agents have been evaluated for their virucidal ability against two distinct Egyptian
subclades of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI); (A/chicken/Egypt/VRLCU67/2011) variant
subclade 2.2.1.1 and (A/chicken/Egypt/13VIR3729-4/2013) classic subclade 2.2.1/C that were sodium
hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite (bleaching powder), Virkon® S, and Peraclean®. The purpose from using
the Egyptian H5N1 viruses in the evaluation was to achieve maximum simulation of Egyptian field reality
as the two viruses represent the two main subclades currently co-circulating in Egypt. The disinfectants were
tested individually for effectiveness against HPAI H5N1 for 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes contact time. Numerical
method and neutralization test were used to assess the ability of each disinfectant to inactivate the virus. Our
results revealed that all the used disinfectants were effective with increasing the contact time more than 15
minutes except with Virkon® S which was effective even at a short contact time, 5 minutes. In conclusion, this
study reported that chlorine and non-chlorine oxidizing agents are effective against H5N1 HPAI at the farm
level that would be helpful in implementing bio-security measures at farms/hatcheries levels in the wake of
avian influenza virus (AIV) outbreak.
