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- Title
Outbreak of Marek's disease in a vaccinated broiler breeding flock during its peak egg-laying period in China.
- Authors
Xinyu Zhuang; Haitao Zou; Huoying Shi; Hongxia Shao; Jianqiang Ye; Ji Miao; Genghua Wu; Aijian Qin
- Abstract
Background: Outbreaks of Marek's disease (MD), caused by Marek's disease virus (MDV), primarily occur in 10-12-week-old hens. Case presentation: We report a case of MD in a breeding flock of 24-30-week-old vaccinated broilers in China. The clinical signs in the affected chickens appeared at 24 weeks, and the incidence of tumours peaked at 30 weeks. The morbidity and mortality of the hens were 5 % and 80 %, respectively. Hematoxylin-eosin staining of the tissues showed the typical characteristics of MD. MDV infection was confirmed in the hens with an agar gel diffusion precipitation assay for the MD antigen in the feather follicle epithelium. An MDV strain, designated AH1410, was isolated from the blood lymphocytes. Sequence analyses of the pp38, meq, and gB genes revealed that strain AH1410 had molecular features consistent with a virulent, previously identified MDV. Conclusion: Our data provide evidence that not only is MDV becoming more virulent, but that the period of its onset in chickens is expanding. These findings provide the basis the molecular surveillance and further study of virulent MDV mutants and control strategies for MD in China.
- Subjects
HERPESVIRUSES; MAREK'S disease virus; BROILER chicken diseases; CHICKENS; POULTRY breeding; AVIAN leukosis; VACCINATION
- Publication
BMC Veterinary Research, 2015, Vol 11, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1746-6148
- Publication type
Case Study
- DOI
10.1186/s12917-015-0493-7