Effect of Chicken Anemia and Infectious Bursal Disease Vaccines and Marek's Disease Virus on the Development of Cellulitis and Myositis Lesions in Floor-Reared MHC-Defined Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Wang, C., Norton, R.A., Macklin, K.S. and Krehling, J.T. 2005. Effect of chicken anemia and infectious bursal disease vaccines and Marek's disease virus on the development of cellulitis and myositis lesions in floor-reared MHC-defined broiler chickens. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 27: 1–5.

In this experiment, 414 chickens were reared in a house in which the previous flock had experienced Marek's disease. Each bird was given 10 doses of infectious bursal disease vaccine on day 11 and on day 19 half of the chickens in every other pen were vaccinated with 2 doses of chicken anemia virus vaccine. All birds were bled on day 23 for MHC haplotype stereotyping. Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium septicum and Staphylococcus aureus were used to challenge the birds on day 29 which were then killed one week after challenge. Statistical analysis showed the percentage of cellulitis in the CAV vaccinated group and NON-CAV vaccinated group was of the same level, while the percentage of myositis occurring in the CAV vaccinated group was significantly higher than that which occurred in the chickens of NON-CAV vaccinated group. Chickens with MHC haplotype of B^A9/B^A9 experienced significantly lower levels of cellulitis than did chickens of B²¹/B²¹ haplotype. For both the MHC haplotypes, chickens in the CAV vaccinated groups were more resistant than the chickens of NON-CAV vaccinated group to the development of cellulitis.

Keywords:

• Avian cellulitis
• myositis
• infectious bursal disease
• chicken anemia
• Marek's disease virus