De. Swayne et al., Influence of virus strain and antigen mass on efficacy of H5 avian influenza inactivated vaccines, AVIAN PATH, 28(3), 1999, pp. 245-255
The influence of vaccine strain and antigen mass on the ability of inactiva
ted avian influenza (AI) viruses to protect chicks from a lethal, highly pa
thogenic (HP) AI virus challenge was studied. Groups of 4-week-old chickens
were immunized with inactivated vaccines containing one of 10 haemagglutin
in subtype H5 AI viruses, one heterologous H7 AI virus or normal allantoic
fluid (sham), and challenged 3 weeks later by intra-nasal inoculation with
a HP H5 chicken-origin AI virus. All 10 H5 vaccines provided good protectio
n from clinical signs and death, and produced positive serological reaction
s on agar gel immunodiffusion and haemagglutination inhibition tests. In ex
periment 1, challenge virus was recovered from the oropharynx of 80% of chi
ckens in the H5 vaccine group. In five H5 vaccine groups, challenge virus w
as not recovered from the cloaca of chickens. In the other five H5 vaccine
groups, the number of chickens with detection of challenge virus from the c
loaca was Tower than in the sham group (P < 0.05). Reductions in the quanti
ty of challenge virus shed from the cloaca and oropharynx were also evident
in some H5 vaccinate groups when compared to the sham group. However, ther
e was no positive correlation between the sequence identity of the haemaggl
utinin gene from the vaccine strain and challenge virus, and the ability to
reduce the quantity of challenge virus shed from the cloaca or oropharynx,
As the quantity of AI antigen in the vaccines increased, all parameters of
protection improved and were virus strain dependent. A/turkey/Wisconsin/68
(H5N9) was the best vaccine candidate of the H5 strains tested (PD50 = 0.00
6 mu g AI antigen). These data demonstrate that chickens vaccinated with in
activated H5 whole virus AI vaccines were protected from clinical signs and
death, but usage of vaccine generally did not prevent infection by the cha
llenge virus, as indicated by recovery of virus from the oropharynx, Vaccin
e use reduced cloacal detection rates, and quantity of virus shed from the
cloaca and oropharynx in some vaccine groups, which would potentially reduc
e environmental contamination and disease transmission in the field.