Influence of infectious bursal disease and chicken anemia vaccines on the development of cellulitis and myositis lesions in cage-reared broilers

Abstract

The present set of experiments was designed to explore the influence of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV) and Chicken Anemia Virus (CAV) vaccines on the development of cellulitis and myositis in broiler chickens. On day of hatch, broiler chickens were randomly placed into one of four treatment groups. The control group birds were not vaccinated. In order to induce immunosuppression, chickens were given either IBDV vaccine (group 2) on day 12 or CAV vaccine (group 3) on day 19 or both (group 4). On day 31 all four treatments were challenged with a mixture of Clostridium perfringens, C. septieum and Staphylococcus aureus. Seven days post-challenge all of the birds were euthanized and necropsied. All the vaccinated birds (groups 2, 3 and 4) experienced a significantly higher incidence of cellulitis and myositis lesions. A high frequency of positive antibody titers against IBDV was noted, but the antibody response was lower for CAV. Immunosuppressed chickens have a greater probability of developing cellulitis and I or myositis than non-immunosuppressed chickens. © GSP, India.