Laryngotracheitis (LT) is a highly contagious respiratory disease of chickens that produces significant economic losses to the poultry industry. Traditionally, LT has been controlled by administration of modified live vaccines. In recent years, the use of recombinant DNA-derived vaccines using turkey herpesvirus (HVT) and fowlpox virus has expanded, as they protect not only against the vector used but also against LT. However, HVT-based vaccines confer limited protection against challenge, with emergent very virulent plus Marek's disease virus (vv+MDV). Serotype 1 vaccines have been proven to be the most efficient against vv+MDV. In particular, deletion of oncogene MEQ from the oncogenic vvMDV strain Md5 (BACδMEQ) resulted in a very efficient vaccine against vv+MDV. In this work, we have developed two recombinant vaccines against MD and LT by using BACδMEQ as a vector that carries either the LT virus (LTV) gene glycoprotein B (gB; BACΔMEQ-gB) or LTV gene glycoprotein J (gJ; BACδMEQ-gJ). We have evaluated the protection that these recombinant vaccines confer against MD and LT challenge when administered alone or in combination. Our results demonstrated that both bivalent vaccines (BACΔMEQ-gB and BACδMEQ-gJ) replicated in chickens and were safe to use in commercial meat-type chickens bearing maternal antibodies against MDV. BACΔMEQ-gB protected as well as a commercial recombinant (r)HVT-LT vaccine against challenge with LTV. However, BACδMEQ-gJ did not protect adequately against LT challenge or increase protection conferred by BACΔMEQ-gB when administered in combination. On the other hand, both BACΔMEQ-gB and BACδMEQ-gJ, administered alone or in combination, protected better against an early challenge with vv+MDV strain 648A than commercial strains of rHVT-LT or CVI988. Our results open a new avenue in the development of recombinant vaccines by using serotype 1 MDV as vectors.

Village chicken or Ayam Kampung, common to Southeast Asian countries, has always been regarded as superior in comparison to commercial broiler chicken in terms of wholesomeness and health benefits. The current study investigates the prevalence and risk factors of Salmonella among village chicken flocks from the central and southern states of Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 35 village flocks were sampled from Selangor (n = 19), Melaka (n = 10), Johor (n = 4), and Negeri Sembilan (n = 2). In total, 1,042 samples were collected; these included cloacal swabs (n = 675), eggs (n = 62), pooled drinking water (n = 175), pooled feeds (n = 70), and pooled flies (n = 60). Isolation of Salmonella from cloacal swabs, poultry drinking water, and feeds was carried out according to the protocols and recommendations of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) terrestrial manual. The prevalence of Salmonella at an individual bird-level was 2.5% (17/675, 95% CI: 1.6 to 4.0). All eggs screened were negative; in the case of environmental samples, however, Salmonella was detected in 5.14% (9/175), 7.14% (5/70), and 5.0% (3/60) for water, feed, and flies, respectively. A total of 34 isolates and 8 Salmonella serotypes were identified. Weltevreden (20.6%) was the most common, followed by Typhimurium and Agona (17.6%), Albany and Enteritidis (8.8%), Molade (5.9%), Corvallis and Schleissheim (2.9%), and others grouped as Salmonella spp. (11.8%). Multivariable logistic regression models revealed that Salmonella positivity among flocks could be strongly predicted by storage of feeds (uncovered feeds; OR = 10.38; 95% CI: 1.25 to 86.39; p = 0.030) and uncovered water tanks (uncovered tank; OR = 6.43; 95% CI: 1.02 to 40.60; p = 0.048). The presence of Salmonella in village chickens in the study area was lower than that of commercial chickens in Malaysia.

Herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT) has been successfully used as a Marek's disease (MD) vaccine for more than 40 yr. Either alone (broiler chickens) or in combination with vaccines of other serotypes (broilers, broiler breeders, and layers), HVT is used worldwide. In recent years, several vector vaccines based on HVT (rHVT) have been developed. At present, there are both conventional HVT and rHVTs in the market, and it is unknown if all of them confer the same level of protection against MD. The objective of this study was to further characterize the protection conferred by two conventional HVTs (HVT-A and HVT-B) and three recombinant HVTs (rHVT-B, rHVT-C, and rHVT-D) against MD in broiler chickens. In a first study we evaluated the efficacy of two conventional HVTs (HVT-A and HVT-B) administered at different doses (475, 1500, and 4000 PFU) at day of age on the ability to protect against an early challenge with very virulent plus strain 645. In a second experiment we evaluated the protection ability of several HVTs (both conventional and recombinant) when administered in ovo at a dose of 1500 PFU using the same challenge model. Our results show that each HVT product is unique, regardless of being conventional or recombinant, in their ability to protect against MD and might require different PFUs to achieve its maximum efficacy. In Experiment 1, HVT-A at 4000 PFU conferred higher protection (protection index [PI] = 63) than any of the other vaccine protocols (PI ranging from 36 to 47). In Experiment 2, significant differences were found among vaccine protocols with PI varying from 66 (HVT-A) to 15 (rHVT-D). Our results show that each HVT is unique and age at vaccination and vaccine dose greatly affected vaccine efficacy. Furthermore, they highlight the need of following manufacturer's recommendations.

Administration of Marek's disease (MD) vaccines in ovo has become a common practice for the poultry industry. Efficacy of MD vaccines is very high, even though they are administered to chicken embryos that are immunologically immature. We have recently demonstrated that in ovo vaccination with turkey herpesvirus (HVT) results in increased activation of T cells at hatch. Our previous results suggested that in ovo vaccination with HVT might have a positive impact not only on MD protection but also on the overall maturity of the developing immune system of the chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of administration of HVT at 18 days of embryonation (ED) on the maturation of the embryo immune system. Four experiments were conducted in Specific-Pathogen-Free Avian Supplies (SPAFAS) chickens to evaluate the effect of administration of HVT at 18 ED on the splenic cell phenotypes at day of age (experiment 1) and on the ability of 1-day-old chickens to respond to various antigens compared with older birds (experiments 2 and 3). In addition, a fourth experiment was conducted to elucidate whether administration of other serotype's MD vaccines (CVI988 and SB-1) at 18 ED had the same effect as HVT on the spleen cell phenotypes at day of age. Our results demonstrated that 1-day-old chickens that had received HVT in ovo (1-day HVT) had higher percentages of CD45+, MHC-I+, CD45+MHC-I+, CD3+, MHC-II+, CD3+MHC-II+, CD4+, CD8+, and CD4+CD8+ cells in the spleen than 1-day-old sham-inoculated chickens (1-day sham). Moreover, spleens of 1-day HVT chickens had greater percentages of CD45+MHC-I+ cells and equal or greater numbers of CD4+CD8- and CD4-CD8+ cells than older unvaccinated chickens. In addition, administration of HVT at 18 ED rendered chicks at hatch more responsive to unrelated antigens such as concavalin A, phytohemagglutinin-L, and keyhole limpet hemocyanin. Administration of MD vaccines of other serotypes had an effect, although less remarkable than HVT, on the spleen cell phenotypes at hatch. Vaccines of all three serotypes resulted in an increased percentage of MHC-I+, CD45-MHC-I+, CD4-CD8+, and CD8+ cells, but only HVT resulted in a higher percentage of CD45+, CD45+MHC-I+, CD3+MHC-II+, and CD4+CD8- cells. Results of this study show that it is possible to hasten maturation of the chicken embryo immune system by administering HVT in ovo and open new avenues to optimize the procedure to improve and strengthen the immunocompetency of commercial chickens at hatch.

Marek's disease virus (MDV) is a herpesvirus that induces lymphomas and immunosuppression in chickens. MDV-induced immunosuppression (MDV-IS) is divided into two phases: early-MDV-IS occurring mainly in chickens lacking maternal antibodies (MAb) against MDV and associated with lymphoid organ atrophy; and late-MDV-IS occurring once MDV enters latency and during tumour development. Our objectives were to document the impact of late-MDV-IS on commercial poultry (meat-type chickens bearing MAb against MDV and that were vaccinated or unvaccinated against MD) and to optimize a model to study late-MDV-IS under laboratory conditions. The impact of late-MDV-IS was evaluated by assessing the effect of early infection (day of age) with a very virulent plus MDV (vv+MDV) on the efficacy of chicken-embryo-origin (CEO) infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) virus vaccine against ILT challenge. The CEO ILT vaccine was administered in water at 14 days of age and ILT virus (ILTV) challenge was done intratracheally at 30 days of age. Development of ILT was monitored by daily evaluation of clinical signs, development of gross and histological lesions in trachea, and quantification of ILTV transcripts in trachea. Infection with vv+MDV strain 648A resulted in total abrogation of protection conferred by the CEO vaccine against ILTV challenge even in chickens vaccinated at 1 day of age with either HVT, HVT+SB-1, or CVI988. Chickens exposed to vv+MDV prior to vaccination with CEO ILTV vaccine had similar (P < 0.05) clinical scores, gross lesions, histopathologic lesion scores, and load of ILTV transcripts in trachea after ILTV challenge, as chickens that were not vaccinated with CEO ILTV vaccine.