Infectious Bursal Disease: Pathogenicity and Immunogenicity of Vaccines

ABSTRACT The Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) is a contagious viral disease that affects young chickens and may cause high morbidity and mortality. As the virus is very resistant to the environment, vaccination is required in case of high infection pressure. Due to variations in the virulence degree of the vaccines available to control IBD, this study aimed at evaluating the pathogenicity and immunogenicity of three types of vaccines. In total, 220 one-day-old specific pathogen free (SPF) chickens were immunized with recombinant, immune-complex and intermediate vaccines, or not vaccinated (55 birds per group) and challenged with IBD G11 strain on day 25. On days 25, 30, and 35, the Bursa of Fabricius (BF) were submitted to gross and histological examination, and serum samples were submitted to ELISA to determined anti-IBD antibody titers. On day 23, chickens were submitted to the test of hypersensitivity to phytohemagglutinin to evaluate the immunosuppressive effect of vaccines on the cell-mediated immunity. The results have indicated that the immune-complex vaccine induced the most severe BF lesions, whereas the recombinant vaccine preserved BF tissue and cell integrity. The three evaluated vaccines induced humoral immunity of similar intensity. The cellular reaction to phytohemagglutinin of the chickens immunized with recombinant and immune-complex vaccines was less severe compared with the unvaccinated chickens. In conclusion, these results indicate that the immune-complex vaccine was the most pathogenic and that all vaccines were effective in protecting SPF chickens against IBD

Determining the Best Sectioning Method and Intestinal Segment for Morphometric Analysis in Broilers

Brazilian poultry production is very efficient and demands maximum broiler performance. Therefore, digestive system pathologies have a relevant role. Considering it is difficult to obtain consistent information on intestinal morphometric analysis, this study aimed at establishing essential and clear criteria for the collection of intestinal segments for morphometric analysis. Fifteen 13-d-old broilers were sacrificed and three intestinal segments were collected per bird. Two 3-cm long sections were obtained from each of the intestinal segments. Samples were collected open or closed. The closed samples were transversely, hemicylindrically, or longitudinally sectioned. Samples were processed and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The number of microscopic fields in each section was counted. Villi presenting the base clearly embedded in the submucosa, no damage or folds, and simple columnar epithelium at the tip were considered adequate for measurements. These villi were counted in each sample. The results shows that hemicylindrical sections presented the highest number of observation fields, with an average of 9.76 fields. Jejunum samples were among the three highest average villi counts, with 18.23 in longitudinal sections and 15.61 in hemicylindrical sections. The results of the present study indicate that hemicylindrical sectioning and jejunal samples were, respectively, the best sectioning method and the best intestinal segment for the morphometric analysis of the intestines of broilers

Establishment of a Pathogenicity Index for One-day-old Broilers to Pasteurella multocida Strains Isolated from Clinical Cases in Poultry and Swine

ABSTRACT Although Pasteurella multocida is a member of the respiratory microbiota, under some circumstances, it is a primary agent of diseases , such as fowl cholera (FC), that cause significant economic losses. Experimental inoculations can be employed to evaluate the pathogenicity of strains, but the results are usually subjective and knowledge on the pathogenesis of this agent is still limited. The objective of this study was to establish a new methodology for classifying the pathogenicity of P. multocida by formulating a standard index. Strains isolated from FC cases and from swine with respiratory problems were selected. One hundred mL of a bacterial culture of each strain, containing 106 CFU, was inoculated in 10 one-day-old broilers. Mortality after inoculation, time of death (TD), and the presence of six macroscopic lesions were evaluated over a period of seven days post-inoculation (dpi). A Pathogenicity Index Per Bird (IPI), ranging 0 to 10, was calculated. Liver and heart fragments were collected to reisolate the bacteria. Blood was collected from the surviving birds, and an ELISA test was carried out to detect specific antibodies. The median of the pathogenicity indices, the number of lesions and the rate of bacteria reisolation were significantly different (p<0.05) among the origins of the isolates (p<0.05). The pathogenicity index developed in this study allows the classification of Pasteurella multocida pathogenicity and may be an alternative to the pathogenicity models currently used for screening

Infectious bursal disease: evaluation of maternal immunity and protection by vaccination of one-day old chicks against challenge with a very virulent virus isolate

Broiler chicks belonging to two poultry companies, A and B, with different breeders' vaccination programs were challenged with a very virulent strains of infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV), genotyped as G11. Birds were separated in four groups, two vaccinated at the first day of life and two unvaccinated. They were then challenged at the 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th and 22nd days. At every day of challenge, before and after the procedure, the following data were collected from each group: Bursa of Fabricius (BF) relative weight, BF diameter, BF for histologie examination, serum for measuring antibodies against IBDV through the ELISA and clinical evaluation of IBD. The results obtained have shown a non-significant drop in antibody level between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated groups. When analyzing the different results, it could be established that an ELISA titre of 3,4 log10 was the cutoff point between healthy and sick birds. Regression equations were built to determinate the best moment for vaccination and also the ELISA log titre birds what could present in a given age. Based on that, chicks from Company A should receive a vaccine against IBD from the 6th to 7th day of age, while the ones from Company B should get it between the 11th and the 12th day of age. Finally, the overall results suggest that the birds should not be vaccinated at one day old, and also that the breeders' different vaccination schemes resulted in progenies with different levels of maternal protection, and as a consequence the same vaccination plan should not be applied indiscriminately to broilers from different poultry companies

Infectious bursal disease: evaluation of pathogenicity of commercial vaccines from Brazil in specific pathogen free chichens

Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) is a chicken disease economically important for the poultry industry in function of the immune depression that it causes. Disease control is made with different vaccines and vaccination programs. In present work, the pathogenicity of 3 intermediate vaccines (I1, I2 and I3), 2 intermediate more pathogenic (IP1 and IP2) and 3 vaccines containing strong virus (F1, F2 and F3) was evaluated. Birds vaccinated with IP1, IP2, F1, F2 and F3 showed significantly lower bursa size in relation to control animals and animals vaccinated with I1, I2 and I3. On the other hand, vaccines I1 and I3 induced antibody titers higher than the control and lower than I2, IP1, IP2, F1, F2 and F3. Histological scores showed that vaccines I1, I2 and I3 induced similar injury degree, although I2 and I3 were not different from the control, whereas I1 was slightly different. Strong vaccines induced more pronounced lesions than the other tested vaccines. These findings suggest that strong vaccines are able to cause severe bursal injuries. However, bursometry and relative weight of the bursa of Fabricius were considered inadequate to evaluate vaccine pathogenicity. Moreover, strong vaccines induced higher antibody titers than the other vaccines, although some intermediate vaccines induced similar titers