Vaccination

Overview

Due to the resilience of the virus vaccination forms the backbone of IBDV control. Two types of vaccine are used:

• Inactivated IBDV usually formulated in an oil emulsion adjuvant.
• Live attenuated IBDV strains.

Good protection is achieved by the induction of high levels of neutralising antibodies in the chicken. Antibodies neutralise the virus before infecting the bursa, or at lower antibody levels sufficient virus is neutralised to prevent clinical disease.

Schematic representation of IBDV titres (VN log2) required to protect against IBD infection with a very virulent (D6948) and a classical (Faragher 52/70) IBDV strain.

Peer Reviewed by Dr J J (Sjaak) de Wit and William Baxendale.