Location: Poultry Research
Project Number: 6064-32000-013-003-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2024
End Date: Jul 31, 2029
Objective:
To utilize molecular techniques to characterize the immune response of chickens to respiratory diseases in various infection models and their associated interventions.
Approach:
Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) will be used as a model to develop immune surveillance and pathogen phylogenetic tools. Resulting tools will be applied to better understand respiratory infections including MG and its co-infections as well as the efficacy of novel control methods.
Molecular lab techniques will be used to develop high throughput methods to evaluate changes in immune gene expression. Developed methods will be used to determine the immune response of commercial birds to respiratory infections. Birds will be infected with a respiratory pathogen, such as MG or Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), in the presence or absence of an environmental stressor (e.g. heat stress, ammonia stress, co-infection, etc.) or intervention (e.g. vaccine, novel antibiotic alternatives, etc.).
