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Title: Quantitation of Marek’s disease virus in vaccinated population of resistant and susceptible chicken samples using real-time PCR

Author
item CHANG, SHUANG - Michigan State University
item XIE, QINGMEI - Michigan State University
item Zhang, Huanmin

Submitted to: Poultry Science Association Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/11/2012
Publication Date: 7/9/2012
Citation: Chang, S., Xie, Q., Zhang, H. 2012. Quantitation of Marek’s disease virus in vaccinated population of resistant and susceptible chicken samples using real-time PCR. Meeting Abstract. Poultry Science Association Annual Meeting, July 9-12, 2012, Athens Georgia.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Marek’s disease (MD) is a lymphoproliferative disease of chicken caused by cell-associated alpha-herpesvirus, known as Marek’s disease virus (MDV). MD virus load in challenged chickens has been well studied, but the difference between the virus load in vaccinated MD resistant and susceptible chickens remains poorly understood. In this study, we quantitatively evaluated virus load in feather tip samples and dander samples taken from HVT-, or CVI988/Rispens-vaccinated and unvaccinated MD resistant and susceptible chickens challenged with very virulent plus MDV. The quantitative evaluation was done by qPCR. Differences in virus load were detected between the MD resistant and susceptible lines of chickens. The virus load of the MD resistant line of chickens (Line 6) was significantly lower than the MD susceptible line of chickens (Line 7). The difference in virus load between the vaccinated groups, however, is unclear based on the preliminary data we have so far. The virus load difference between different vaccine groups will be re-evaluated as soon as new data become available.