Single dose of Poulvac IBMM+Ark protects long-lived broilers for at least 9 weeks

One dose of the live, attenuated vaccine Poulvac^® IBMM+Ark effectively protected broilers against two infectious bronchitis (IB) strains for at least 9 weeks, a recent study shows.¹

The vaccine is intended for use in chickens to protect against Massachusetts-type and 793B-type IB strains. Although its efficacy has been well demonstrated, researchers wanted to determine whether the vaccine’s duration of immunity met the needs of broiler breeds with longer lifespans, Luuk Stooker, DVM, a technical manager for Zoetis, said at the WVPA conference. In a study with specific-pathogen-free (SPF) chickens, researchers at the Animal Health Service, Deventer, the Netherlands, vaccinated birds with a single dose of Poulvac IBMM+Ark.

At 9 weeks of age, they challenged 20 of the vaccinated and 20 of the unvaccinated birds with M41, a Massachusetts IB strain; they also challenged another 20 vaccinated and 20 unvaccinated birds with the variant IB strain 793B, which is from the same serotype as the Arkansas IB strain. The results were compared to unvaccinated controls.

Five days after challenge, the ciliostasis test demonstrated that 95% of the vaccinated chickens were protected against the IB M41 challenge while 100% of the unvaccinated birds were affected. Among birds challenged with 793B, 90% of the vaccinated birds were protected and 75% of the unvaccinated birds were affected by 5 days after challenge.

“The results clearly demonstrate that a single dose of Poulvac IBMM+Ark effectively protected SPF chickens for at least 9 weeks after vaccination,” Stooker said.

1 Geerligs H, Stooker L, et al. Efficacy of a live infectious bronchitis vaccine containing the strains IBMM and ARK in SPF-chickens nine weeks after vaccination. 2013 world Veterinary Poultry Association Conference, Nantes, France. Zoetis inc. study #9118C- 50-11-009.