Location: Endemic Poultry Viral Diseases Research
Project Number: 6040-32000-084-007-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2023
End Date: Jul 31, 2028
Objective:
Objective 1: Characterize immune responses to single or mixed infections with pathogens that are relevant to broiler production.
Objective 2: Determine the pathological and physiological correlates of immunosuppression, including microbiota and metabolome, subsequent to single or mixed pathogen infection during broiler production.
Objective 3: Evaluate control strategies, with an emphasis on providing protection across a wide variety of antigenically diverse pathogens.
Approach:
There are indications that co-infections with parasites such as coccidia and avian viruses such as reoviruses act synergistically. So far, evaluation of prevention programs against one pathogen consider only efficacy against the pathogen in question. This project will utilize a multidisciplinary approach to explore the interactions of parasites and viruses in broilers to improve prevention. The cooperator and ARS will work together to perform single and mixed infection experiments to characterize immune responses and determine the correlates of immunosuppression. Improved management and vaccination strategies will be evaluated with goal of broad protection across multiple pathogen species.
