• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2009

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) caused by the infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) has an important economic impact on the poultry industry worldwide. This study examined the adjuvant effects of a plasmid encoding chicken interleukin-6 (pcDNA-ChIL-6) and levamisole (LMS) on in ovo prime-boost vaccination using a genetic vaccine (pcDNA-VP243) to prime in chicken followed by a killed-vaccine boost. A pcDNA-VP243 was injected into the amniotic sac alone or in combination with a pcDNA-ChIL-6 or LMS at embryonation day 18, followed by an intramuscular injection of killed IBD vaccine at 1 week of age. The chicken were orally challenged with very virulent IBDV (vvIBDV) strain at 3 weeks of age and observed for 10 days. No mortality was observed in the groups that received the pcDNA-VP243 alone and pcDNA-VP243 plus pcDNA-ChIL-6 or LMS compared to 100% mortality in unvaccinated challenge control group. However, as determined by bursal damage (the presence of IBDV RNA, B/B ratio, and lesion score), a pcDNA-VP243 alone group was superior to pcDNA-VP243 plus pcDNA-ChIL-6 or LMS groups in the protection against post-challenge. These findings suggest that in ovo priming with genetic vaccine and boosting with killed vaccine is an effective strategy for protecting chicken against vvIBDV and the addition of pcDNA-ChIL-6 or LMS did not enhance protective immunity.