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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Biosciences & Biotechnology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #367229
Research Project: Non-antibiotic Strategies to Control Enteric Diseases of Poultry

Location: Animal Biosciences & Biotechnology Laboratory

Title: Immunization with subunits of important virulence factors produced by virulent Clostridium perfringens strains conferred partial protection against necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens

Author
item Li, Charles
item Sun, Zhifeng
item LU, MINGMIN - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item Lillehoj, Hyun
item LIU, LIHENG - Jiangxi Agricultural University
item YUAN, BAOHONG - Guangdong University
item Yan, Xianghe

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/15/2019
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Necrotic enteritis (NE) is one of the top enteric infectious diseases in broiler chickens that is caused primarily by Clostridium perfringens (CP) A/G strains and responsible for around $6 billion economical loss worldwide. Coccidiosis is the major predisposing factor for NE. With gradual reduction and eventual withdrawal of antibiotic growth promoters from animal feed due to public and regulatory pressures, alternatives to antibiotic approaches assume essential. Vaccination should be an ideal approach for mass prevention. However, there is no effective vaccine commercially available for NE by far. In this study, the recombinant proteins: chimeric netB and alpha-toxin (NA), chimeric fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase and a hypothetic protein (FBA/HP), truncated TpeL, were evaluated for their efficacies in protecting chickens against severe NE challenge with pathogenic netB+tpeL+ CP strain. Young broiler chicks were immunized twice subcutaneously with these adjuvanted proteins on days 4 and 15. The adjuvant used was MONTANIDE™ ISA 71 VG from Seppic Inc. The immunizations in chickens resulted in significantly higher serum antibody responses to each antigen, reduced NE lesion severity and less body weight reduction vaccinated with chimeric NA or truncated TpeL, compared to that in the unvaccinated disease challenged group.