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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Endemic Poultry Viral Diseases Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #412429
Research Project: Elucidation of Molecular Determinants of Avian Herpesviruses Virulence and Evolution to Inform the Development of Safe and Effective Vaccines

Location: Endemic Poultry Viral Diseases Research

Title: Construction of recombinant Marek’s disease virus vaccine expressing sigma C proteins of avian reoviruses

Author
item Kim, Taejoong
item Conrad, Steven
item Mohanty, Sujit

Submitted to: American Association of Avian Pathologists
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/6/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: .

Technical Abstract: Avian reovirus (ARV), a significant economic burden on poultry production, is implicated in various production-limiting diseases including runting-stunting syndrome, malabsorption syndrome, impaired feed conversion, and increased condemnation rates. In young chickens and turkeys, ARV manifests as arthritis/tenosynovitis, with co-infections by other viruses exacerbating clinical severity. Control primarily relies on inactivated and live attenuated vaccines, but their efficacy is hampered by antigenic drift between circulating ARVs and vaccine strains. The ARV sigma (s) C protein, encoded by the S1 segment and crucial for virus attachment to target cells, serves as a major neutralizing antibody target. To broaden vaccine protection against diverse ARV groups, a novel recombinant Marek's disease virus (MDV) expressing multiple sC proteins was constructed using a single bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) and BAC recombineering. The presentation will explore the expression analysis of sC proteins from vaccine and field ARV isolates, as well as the stability of the recombinant MDV-ARV sC construct.