Location: Endemic Poultry Viral Diseases Research
2022 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Recombinant vaccine against chicken infectious bronchitis. Chicken infectious bronchitis, caused by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), is a major cause of economic losses in the poultry industry worldwide. Vaccination with a serotype-specific attenuated live IBV vaccine is a common practice to control the disease. However, the IBV vaccine viruses are genetically unstable, and some mutated vaccine subpopulations revert virulence, contributing to the infectious bronchitis outbreaks. To overcome the drawbacks of these commercial vaccines, ARS researchers in Athens, Georgia, in collaboration with the scientists at Auburn University, developed a Newcastle disease virus vaccine strain-based recombinant virus co-expressing the spike protein of Ark-serotype IBV and the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (a chicken cytokine). This recombinant virus was safe for one-day-old chickens and genetically stable after four passages in chicken embryos. Vaccination of chickens with this recombinant vaccine significantly reduced viral load and tracheal lesions after the IBV challenge. Chickens primed with this recombinant vaccine and boosted with the commonly used IBV Mass-type vaccine conferred significant cross-protection against the IBV Ark-type challenge. These results suggest that this recombinant virus is a safe and genetically stable vaccine candidate and can be combined with the live Mass vaccine to improve protection against Ark-type infectious bronchitis.
Review Publications
Zhao, W., Zhang, P., Bai, S., Lv, M., Wang, J., Chen, W., Yu, Q., Wu, J. 2021. Heterologous prime-boost regimens with Ad5 and NDV vectors elicit stronger immune responses to Ebola virus than homologous regimens in mice. Archives of Virology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-021-05234-4.
Kang, K., Day, J.M., Eldemery, F., Yu, Q. 2021. Pathogenic evaluation of a turkey coronavirus isolate (TCoV NC1743) in turkey poults for establishing a TCoV disease model. Veterinary Microbiology. 259:109155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetmic.2021.109155.
Khalid, Z., He, L., Yu, Q., Breedlove, C., Joiner, K., Toro, H. 2021. Enhanced protection by recombinant newcastle disease virus expressing infectious bronchitis virus spike ectodomain and chicken granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Avian Diseases. 65(3):364–372. https://doi.org/10.1637/aviandiseases-D-21-00032.
Dimitrov, K.M., Taylor, T.L., Marcano, V.C., Williams Coplin, T.D., Olivier, T.L., Yu, Q., Gogal Jr., R.M., Suarez, D.L., Afonso, C.L. 2021. Novel recombinant Newcastle disease virus-based in Ovo vaccines bypass maternal immunity to provide full protection from early virulent challenge. Vaccines. 9(10):1189. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9101189.
