MVA-VP2 as an immunogen against Infectious bursal disease virus

RICHETTA, MATÍAS; LUCERO, MARÍA S.; CHIMENO ZOTH, SILVINA; PINTO, SILVINA; GRAVISACO, MARÍA JOSÉ; CALAMANTE, GABRIELA; GOMEZ, EVANGELINA; BERINSTEIN, ANALÍA

Oxford

Congreso; XV Meeting of the Avian Immunology Research Group; 2018

Avian Immunology Research Group

In the poultry industry, Infectious bursal disease (IBD) arises as a potential cause of important economic losses because of its immunosuppressive nature. Usually, the vaccines used against IBDV are live-attenuated viral strains that often cause some degree of damage in the bursa due to their residual virulence. In the search for new alternatives that protect animals without causing bursal damage, we have developed a vaccine candidate based on a non-replicativeviral vector (Modified Vaccinia Ankara ? MVA) which carries the codifying sequence of VP2, the major capsid component and the main target of neutralizing antibodies against the virus.In this work, 7 day-old White Leghorn SPF chicks were intramuscularly inoculated with 5*105 PFU of MVA-VP2 or a recombinant MVA that expresses the green fluorescent protein (MVAGFP) as control group. In order to evaluate the humoral response kinetics and the presence of neutralizing antibodies, birds were periodically bled. Three weeks after inoculation, all animals were challenged with a field isolate of IBDV, and one week later they were sacrificed to collectdifferent samples. Animals immunized with MVA-VP2 had significantly higher Bursa to Body weight ratios than those of the control group (p