Abstract
Avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) is an immunosuppressive virus that causes considerable economic losses to the chicken industry in China. However, there is currently no effective vaccine to prevent ALV-J infection. In order to reduce the losses caused by ALV-J, we constructed two effective ALV-J vaccines by inserting the ALV-J (strain JL093-1) env or gag+env genes into the US2 gene of the Marek’s disease herpesviruses (MDV) by transfection of overlapping fosmid DNAs, creating two recombinant MDVs, rMDV/ALV-gag+env and rMDV/ALV-env. Analysis of cultured chicken embryo fibroblasts infected with the rMDVs revealed that Env and Gag were successfully expressed and that there was no difference in growth kinetics in cells infected with rMDVs compared with that of cells infected with the parent MDV. Chickens vaccinated with either rMDV revealed that positive serum antibodies were induced. Both rMDVs also effectively reduced the rate of positive viremia in chicken flocks challenged with ALV-J. The protective effect provided by rMDV/ALV-env inoculation was slightly stronger than that provided by rMDV/ALV-gag+env. This represents the first study where a potential rMDV vaccine, expressing ALV-J antigenic genes, has been shown to be effective in the prevention of ALV-J. Our study also opens new avenues for the control of MDV and ALV-J co-infection.
Highlights
Since avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) was first described, it has spread, leading to serious economic losses in poultry production [1]
Our results demonstrate that these Marek’s disease herpesviruses (MDV)-vectored live vaccines induce an immune response and provide protection against Avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) infection
US2 region in the MDV genome has been identified as being nonessential for viral replication of recombinant MDVs (rMDVs) and suitable for foreign insertion
Summary
Since avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) was first described, it has spread, leading to serious economic losses in poultry production [1]. Both broilers and layers can be infected, inducing the formation of various types of tumors including hemangiomas and myelocytomas [2,3]. ALV-J-induced diseases are seen among layer chickens and local chickens in China [4], and infection patterns in the country differ from those observed in Europe, where no layer cases have been found. In order to Viruses 2016, 8, 301; doi:10.3390/v8110301 www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses
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