Serological Survey of Newcastle Disease Virus in Chukar Partridges by Vaccination with Inactivated Oil Adjuvant Vaccine Following Use of Live Vaccines

Newcastle Disease (ND) is an acute, highly contagious viral disease in poultry. Despite the intensive vaccination programs to control Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), the recent infection of NDV in Iran has led to severe morbidity and mortality in Chukar Partridges. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of Inactivated Oil Adjuvant Vaccine (IOAV) following use of live vaccine to have better protection in Chukar Partridges against ND. Three hundred Chukar Partridges were divided in to 5 groups. The groups were vaccinated according to following program: I-vaccinated with B1 strain of NDV via drinking water at five weeks of age; group II-vaccinated in the same mode as group I with B1 live vaccine and revaccinated at seven weeks of age with la Sota strain of NDV via drinking water; group III-vaccinated at five weeks of age with strain B1 live vaccine given by drinking water in combination with IOAV vaccine administered subcutaneously at the nape of each bird; group IV-vaccinated at five weeks of age with B1 by eye drop in combination with IOAV vaccine also administered as in group III; and group V-not vaccinated. All groups were reared in the same conditions. At 17 weeks of age, all Chukar Partridges were challenged with Hertz 33/56 strain of NDV. All the Chukar Partridges in group V died, indicating that there was no disease resistance of this unvaccinated control group of Chukar Partridges. The disease resistance of chukar Partridges in the vaccine groups (100.00) was significantly different from that of the control group (0.00) (p<0.001). The mean antibody titers between all groups were significantly different (p<0.001). In the groups that vaccinated simultaneously with B1 live vaccine and IOAV, the enhancement of titers was meaningful in comparison to the groups that received only lived vaccines.