Pathological and immunological study of an in ovo complex vaccine against infectious bursal disease

The appearance of very virulent strains of infectious bursal disease (IBD) virus at the end of the 1980s made it necessary to develop more effective i mmunization procedures. To facilitate this, the immunogenicity and the immu nosuppressive effect of a mild (G-87), an intermediate (LIBD) and an interm ediate-plus (IBDV 2512) IBDV strain were tested after the in ovo inoculatio n of Is-day-old SPF and broiler chicken embryos. It was established that no noteworthy difference existed between the immunized and the control embryo s in hatching rate and hatching weight. The higher the virulence of the vac cine virus strain, the more severe damage it caused to the lymphocytes of t he bursa of Fabricius. In SPF chickens, the haemagglutination inhibition (H I) titres induced by a Newcastle disease (ND) vaccine administered at day o ld decreased in inverse ratio to the virulence of the IBD vaccine strain, w hile in broiler chickens this was not observed. Despite the decrease of the HI titre, the level of protection did not decline, or did so only after th e use of the 'hot' strain. SPF chickens immunized in ovo with a complex vac cine prepared from strain IBDV 2512 and IBD antibody showed the same protec tion against Newcastle disease as the broilers. In broiler chicken embryos immunized in ovo, only strain IBDV 2512 induced antibody production, and su ch chickens were protected against IBD at 3 weeks of age. The complex vacci ne administered in ovo has been used successfully at farm hatcheries as wel l.