Infectious bursal disease virus is costly and deadly to poultry. It targets and destroys most of the antibody-producing cells in a chicken’s immune system. Susantha Gomis, veterinary pathologist at Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, likens IBDV in chickens to HIV in humans. Once the birds are infected with IBDV, they’re more susceptible to other illnesses because their immune systems are weak.
All IBDV vaccines are manufactured in the U.S. and are effective in combating U.S. variants of the virus, but are little help against Canadian viruses. Gomis’s team hopes to develop a vaccine that will target Canadian variants of the virus.
Source: WCVM Today, June 9, 2021. Link. Working with chicken embryos and cell lines, the WCVM team members are growing and harvest the virus so they can eventually produce an attenuated version – a virus incapable of causing disease.
INSIGHTS: Thank you to Sarah Mikesell, president of Global Ag Media and editor of The Pig Site, for sharing this article.