Location: Endemic Poultry Viral Diseases Research
Project Number: 6040-32000-084-002-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 28, 2025
End Date: Aug 27, 2028
Objective:
Objective: Characterize and exploit the host immune response to polymicrobial or immunosuppressive infections in poultry production
Sub-objective 1.1: Determine how polymicrobial infection with reovirus and other significant pathogens of broilers, including infectious bursal disease virus, fowladenovirus and chicken anemia virus impact the normal process of pathogen clearing and resolution of symptoms of other disease.
Sub-objective 1.2: Evaluate control strategies of viral and parasitic enteric infections, with an emphasis on providing protection across a wide variety of diverse pathogens.
Approach:
There are indications that co-infections with parasites such as coccidia and avian viruses such as reoviruses act synergistically. So far, evaluation of prevention programs against one pathogen consider only efficacy against the pathogen in question. This project will utilize a multidisciplinary approach to explore the interactions of parasites and viruses in broilers to improve prevention. The cooperator and ARS will work together to perform single and mixed infection experiments to characterize immune responses and determine the correlates of immunosuppression. Improved management and vaccination strategies will be evaluated with goal of broad protection across multiple pathogen species.