Immune response elicited by the oral administration of an intermediate strain of IBDV in chickens

The immune response elicited by the oral inoculation of an intermediate strain of infectious bursal disease virus was studied in chickens. A strong over expression of IL-6, IL-8, IFNα and IFNγ was observed in bursa at 3 days post inoculation together with an increase in splenic NO2 release. An influx of T-lymphocytes was also detected.

Effects of Dangguibuxue Tang, a Chinese herbal medicine, on growth performance and immune responses in broiler chicks

The effects of Dangguibuxue Tang (DBT) on growth performance and immunity response in immunosuppressed broiler chicks were investigated in this study. 240 one-d-old broiler chicks (DaHeng S01) were randomly divided into 4 groups, 2.0% DBT-treatment (A), 0.5% DBT-treatment (B), cyclophosphamide-control (C), and control group (D). From 4 d to 7 d of age, chicks in group A, B and C were given cyclophosphamide (CY) at a dosage of 100mg/kg body weight (BW) daily by intraperitoneal injection to induce immunosuppression. Chicks in group D were given an equal volume of physiological saline daily by intraperitoneal injection and considered normal chicks. Groups A and B were supplemented with 2.0% or 0.5% of DBT in the drinking water from 8 d to 42 d of age. Groups C and D did not receive any additional medication. The results revealed that chicks from group B had lower feed:gain rate (FGR), lower total mortality, higher immunity organ indexes, higher levels of Newcastle disease (ND) antibody and infectious bursal disease (IBD) antibody, higher interleukin-2 and interleukin-6 levels, and greater lymphocyte proliferative responses to concanavalin A (ConA) during the experiment than those from group C. However, no significant difference in the immunity status in the two levels of DBT-treatment was observed. These results indicate that supplementation of 0.5% of DBT can improve both cellular immunity and humoral immunity in immunosuppressed broiler chicks.

Protection of chicken against very virulent IBDV provided by in ovo priming with DNA vaccine and boosting with killed vaccine and the adjuvant effects of plasmid-encoded chicken interleukin-2 and interferon-gamma

The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of in ovo prime-boost vaccination against infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) using a DNA vaccine to prime in ovo followed by a killed-vaccine boost post hatching. In addition, the adjuvant effects of plasmid-encoded chicken interleukin-2 and chicken interferon-gamma were tested in conjunction with the vaccine. A plasmid DNA vaccine (pcDNA-VP243) encoding the VP2, VP4, and VP3 proteins of the very virulent IBDV (vvIBDV) SH/92 strain was injected into the amniotic sac alone or in combination with a plasmid encoding chicken IL-2 (ChIL-2) or chicken IFN-gamma (ChIFN-gamma) at embryonation day 18, followed by an intramuscular injection of a commercial killed IBD vaccine at 1 week of age. The chickens were orally challenged with the vvIBDV SH/92 strain at 3 weeks of age and observed for 10 days. In ovo DNA immunization followed by a killed-vaccine boost provided significantly better immunity than the other options. No mortality was observed in this group after a challenge with the vvIBDV. The prime-boost strategy was moderately effective against bursal damage, which was measured by the bursa weight/body weight ratio, the presence of IBDV RNA, and the bursal lesion score. In ovo DNA vaccination with no boost did not provide sufficient immunity, and the addition of ChIL-2 or ChIFN-gamma did not enhance protective immunity. In the ConA-induced lymphocyte proliferation assay of peripheral blood lymphocyte collected 10 days post-challenge, there was greater proliferation responses in the DNA vaccine plus boost and DNA vaccine with ChIL-2 plus boost groups compared to the other groups. These findings suggest that priming with DNA vaccine and boosting with killed vaccine is an effective strategy for protecting chickens against vvIBDV.

Effects of DDA, CpG-ODN, and plasmid-encoded chicken IFN-gamma on protective immunity by a DNA vaccine against IBDV in chickens

This study examined the adjuvant effects of dimethyl dioctadecyl ammonium bromide (DDA), CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG-ODN), and chicken interferon-gamma (ChIFN-gamma) on a DNA vaccine (pcDNA-VP243) against the infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV). A plasmid encoding chicken IFN-atilde was constructed. Twice at 2-week intervals, twoweek-old chickens were injected intramuscularly and intraperitoneally with either a DNA vaccine alone or a DNA vaccine together with the respective adjuvants. On week 2 after the second immunization, the chickens were orally challenged with the highly virulent IBDV. The groups that received the DNA vaccines plus either DDA or CpG-ODN showed significantly lower survival rates than the group that received the DNA vaccine alone. However, the survival rates for the DNA vaccine alone and for the DNA vaccine plus ChIFN-gamma were similar. The chickens had no detectable antibodies to the IBDV before the challenge but all the surviving chickens in all groups except for the normal control group showed the induction of antibodies to the IBDV at day 10 after the challenge. As judged by the lymphocyte proliferation assays using the a WST-8 solution performed on the peripheral blood and splenic lymphocytes, the stimulation indices (SI) of the peripheral blood lymphocytes in all groups except for the normal control group were similar immediately before the challenge. At 10 days post-challenge, the SI for DNA vaccine plus either CpG-ODN or ChIFN-gamma was similar to that of the DNA vaccine control group. For splenic lymphocytes, the SI in the DNA vaccine plus CpG-ODN and DNA vaccine plus ChIFN-gamma groups were higher than for the DNA vaccine control. These results suggest that DDA actually compromises the protection against the IBDV by DNA vaccine, and CpG-ODN and IFN-gamma had no significant effect.

Passive immunization using purified IgYs against infectious bursal disease of chickens in Pakistan

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is an acute and highly contagious disease of young chickens caused by Birnavirus. Mortality of infected birds can be best prevented if injected with antibodies. The present study was an attempt to raise specific hyper-immune polyclonal antibodies against IBD virus in Pakistan. Commercial layers divided into four groups were injected with IBD vaccine subcutaneously according to four different treatment regimens. Eggs were collected daily and antibodies were purified from yolk with dextran sulphate. Titers of antibodies in serum and yolk were evaluated with enzyme linked immunosorbant assay and agar gel precipitation test. Antibody titers were significantly higher in yolk than serum. Eggs collected at 28 days post-vaccination had maximum antibody titers. Of treatment regimens, T3 was found to be most effective for hyperimmunization. Lyophilized antibodies stored at 4oC did not lose their activity till the end of experiment. IBD virus infected birds were injected with purified antibodies which induced 92% recovery as compared to control birds. The study implicates that the purified antibodies may be useful as a therapeutic agent to cure IBD infected birds.

Efficacy of VP2 protein expressed in E. coli for protection against highly virulent infectious bursal disease virus

The ability of a heat-inactivated whole virus from a highly virulent infectious bursal disease virus (hvIBDV) and VP2 protein from hvIBDV expressed in E. coli provided protection against a hvIBDV challenge in specificpathogen- free (SPF) chickens. Six out of seven chickens that were injected three times with crude VP2 protein developed significant antibody titer against IBDV. However, only four out of the seven chickens survived the hvIBDV challenge. Despite showing low antibody titer profiles, all chickens immunized with the heat-inactivated whole virus also survived the challenged with hvIBDV. However, all of these chickens had bursal atrophy and mild to moderate depletion of lymphocytes. Thus, antibodies raised against IBDV VP2 protein expressed in E. coli and denatured IBDV proteins induced some degree of protection against mortality but not against bursal damage following challenge with hvIBDV.

Early and transient induction of nitric oxide (NO) in infectious bursal disease virus infection is T-cell dependent: a study in cyclosporin-A treated chicken-model.

The level of nitric oxide (NO) in the supernatants of mitogen (PHA) stimulated lymphocyte cultures from infectious bursal disease (IBD) virus infected T-cell suppressed and immune competent chickens was monitored. The immune competent chickens when infected with IBD virus showed 4-6 folds increased levels of NO as compared to uninfected chickens. The levels of NO in T-cell suppressed chickens were comparable to uninfected control chickens, in spite of markedly increased hemorrhage suggesting that the muscular hemorrhage observed in IBD in not solely and directly related with NO production. The immune suppressed chickens that did not induce NO production after IBD virus infection showed more severe lesions and supported enhanced virus replication. Taken together it may be suggested that NO production after IBD virus infection, may exert antiviral effect since the immune-suppressed chickens that failed to induce NO showed more severe disease and higher magnitude of virus replication, but does not seem to correlate with the hemorrhagic lesions which in fact may be as a result of the net outcome of various host-factors and the determinants responsible for virus virulence and virus clearance.

Infiltration by CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes in bursa of chickens infected with Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV): strain-specific differences.

In order to investigate if there is any definite correlation between the degree of T-cell response in the bursa of Fabricius (BF) and the virulence of Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) virus strains, chickens were infected with strains of different virulence i.e. mild (Lukert strain), intermediate (Georgia strain) or invasive intermediate (IV-95 strain). At various times post-inoculation, bursal samples were collected to study virus specific histopathological lesions, the distribution of viral antigen and the extent of T-cell infiltration in the bursa. Most severe bursal lesions were induced by IV-95 strain (the invasive intermediate strain), whereas Lukert, the mild strain caused the least severe lesions. The number of virus positive cells in the bursa was highest in chickens infected with IV-95 strain. Substantial infiltration of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells in the bursal follicles of virus-infected groups was observed from 4 d.p.i. onwards. The magnitude of T-cell response was more in the birds infected with intermediate (Georgia) or invasive intermediate strains of virus than chickens inoculated with mild (Lukert) strain, even when 10-fold higher doses of the inoculums were used. PHA responses to peripheral lymphocytes were found suppressed in all the groups of chickens only transiently. The results indicate that the magnitude of T-cell responses in BF during IBDV infection is influenced more by the virulence of virus strain rather than the quantum of viral load in BF. Over all these studies may have implications in understanding the role of T-cells in pathogenesis and immunity in IBD.

Immunopotentiating effects of Azadirachta indica (Neem) dry leaves powder in broilers, naturally infected with IBD virus.

Effects of feeding of powdered dry leaves of A. indica (AI) were investigated on humoral and cell mediated immune responses, in a flock of broilers which had survived an outbreak of infectious bursal disease (IBD). AI (2 g/kg) treatment significantly enhanced the antibody titres against new castle disease virus (NCDV) antigen and also potentiated the inflammatory reactions to 1. Chloro-2,4-di- nitro benzene (DNCB) inskin contact test. The results indicate that AI could be beneficial in immunosuppressed condition like IBD, in poultry.