Abstract
Thermostable Newcastle disease vaccine virus strain I2 (NDVI2) was investigated for its efficacy as foodborne vaccine using maize, sorghum and their brans as carriers. Immune response to vaccination and resistance to challenge were assessed by haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test. After primary and secondary vaccination at three and six weeks of age, sera and feather pulp samples were analyzed to determine the antibody titre in the different groups. The highest mean antibody titre of 7.39 ± 0.42 log2 was recorded for serum when the vaccine was administered through treated sorghum coated with gum Arabic (TSGG) and 7.28 ± 0.37 log2 for feather pulp in the group given maize bran (MZB) at eight weeks of age. There was no significant difference (p ˃ 0.05) between the HI antibody titre in the feed groups from feather pulp samples at three weeks of age while a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the serum antibody titre was observed between all the feed groups at five weeks of age. There was correlation in antibody titre between serum and feather pulps only at two weeks after second vaccination. The protection rate after challenge in all the groups was low with the highest rate (14%) recorded when the vaccine was administered in treated maize (TMZ) and TSGG. The study concluded that the vaccine could be effective for the protection of village chickens as food-borne vaccine provided the carrier foods are adequately treated to remove antiviral agents. The use of feather samples as suitable alternative to serum for ND serology was discussed. Key words: Chickens, maize, sorghum, Newcastle disease, thermostable vaccine.
Highlights
Newcastle disease (ND) is one of the major important viral disease of poultry which had caused huge economic loses to farmers in recent past (Aamir, 2014)
At six weeks of age, the lowest mean haemagglutination inhibition (HI) ND antibody titre was recorded in group A2 (0.33 ± 0.33 log2), while at eight weeks of age after secondary vaccination the highest mean HI ND antibody titre of 7.39± 0.42 log2 was recorded in groups B2 (Table 1)
The response of birds to primary vaccination was high at five weeks of age with the highest mean HI antibody titre of 8.67 ± 0.58 log2 recorded in group A2; all other groups had mean HI antibody titre ≥ 3 log2
Summary
Newcastle disease (ND) is one of the major important viral disease of poultry which had caused huge economic loses to farmers in recent past (Aamir, 2014). Newcastle disease virus (NDV) has a wide range of hosts, as more than 250 bird species have been found to be susceptible by natural or experimental infections, wild. The vaccines are administered intramuscularly, intraocularly or orally in water (Abdu et al, 2012) This is impracticable for a village farmer because the method of administration requires the catching and handling of birds and there is no guarantee that local birds will drink vaccine treated water (Abdu et al, 2012). Thermostable Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccines have been used widely to control ND for village poultry flocks, due to their independence of cold chains for delivery and storage (Guoyuan et al, 2015)
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