fbpx
Sign up now!
Don't show this again
Sweepstakes Rules

We’re glad you’re enjoying Poultry Health Today.
Access is free but you’ll need to register to view more content.
Already registered? Sign In
Tap to download the app
X
Share
X
REPORTSCollect articles and features into your own report to read later, print or share with others

Create a New Report

Favorites

Read Later

Create a new report

Report title (required) Brief description (optional)
CREATE
X
NEXT
POULTRY
follow us


You must be logged in to edit your profile.

Sponsored by Zoetis

Sponsored By Zoetis

.
Playicon

Novel technologies needed to combat IB in chickens

Despite decades of vaccination, the world poultry industry’s ongoing battle with infectious bronchitis (IB) continues to rage and points to the need for novel technologies to combat the disease, according to Haroldo Toro, DVM, PhD, Auburn University.

“The industry has done a lot, but we have not been able to control [the disease]. And you know, the first vaccines were produced in the 1950s, and here we are still talking about bronchitis,” Toro told Poultry Health Today.

The IB virus is extremely “successful” and is probably the most economically relevant virus in the poultry industry worldwide. It’s always there, he noted, in contrast to avian influenza, which comes and goes.

When the right IB vaccines are used at the right time, producers can expect reasonably good protection against the IB virus. That’s not always the case, however, because of the changing nature of the IB virus, the lack of cross-protection and the ability of the virus to recombine.

If flocks have IB virus strains A and B, for example, and are vaccinated only against strain A, they won’t be protected against strain B, said Toro, who gave a keynote address titled “Understanding the success of infectious bronchitis virus” at the 2018 American Association of Avian Pathologists conference.

“So, what we need to do is invest in new, novel technologies,” he said.

“Recombinant vaccines induce an immune response but don’t replicate in the host, but there are other vectors that could be used that would express a particular protein in a way that would also produce immunity against IB virus.”

Questions European approach

Toro questioned an approach to IB virus control used in Europe that involves the use of vaccines with serotypes that are said to protect against other serotypes. The approach “doesn’t work,” he asserted, and said researchers have demonstrated it is not effective against US strains of IB virus.

The perceived boost in protection “may be just because of the invasiveness of [a] particular virus strain that they have been using,” he reasoned.  “It just covers all host receptors, and the wild strain is not able to replicate.”

For now, the best strategy is to use diagnostics to identify the strains of IB virus affecting a flock and then use a homologous vaccine — a strain similar to the wild strain that’s causing the problem.

Toro noted his involvement with studies demonstrating that the response to IB vaccines isn’t as good in birds with an immature immune system. “If you have the possibility of postponing your vaccination, you will have a better response,” he said.




Posted on March 27, 2019

tags: ,
RELATED NEWS



You must be logged in to edit your profile.

Google Translate is provided on this website as a reference tool. However, Poultry Health Today and its sponsor and affiliates do not guarantee in any way the accuracy of the translated content and are not responsible for any event resulting from the use of the translation provided by Google. By choosing a language other than English from the Google Translate menu, the user agrees to withhold all liability and/or damage that may occur to the user by depending on or using the translation by Google.