A Novel Recombinant Newcastle Disease Vaccine Improves Post- In Ovo Vaccination Survival with Sustained Protection against Virulent Challenge

In ovo vaccination has been employed by the poultry industry for over 20 years to control numerous avian diseases. Unfortunately, in ovo live vaccines against Newcastle disease have significant limitations, including high embryo mortality and the inability to induce full protection during the first two weeks of life. In this study, a recombinant live attenuated Newcastle disease virus vaccine containing the antisense sequence of chicken interleukin 4 (IL-4), rZJ1*L-IL4R, was used. The rZJ1*L-IL4R vaccine was administered in ovo to naïve specific pathogen free embryonated chicken eggs (ECEs) and evaluated against a homologous challenge. Controls included a live attenuated recombinant genotype VII vaccine based on the virus ZJ1 (rZJ1*L) backbone, the LaSota vaccine and diluent alone. In the first of two experiments, ECEs were vaccinated at 18 days of embryonation (DOE) with either 10^4.5 or 10^3.5 50% embryo infectious dose (EID₅₀/egg) and chickens were challenged at 21 days post-hatch (DPH). In the second experiment, 10^3.5 EID₅₀/egg of each vaccine was administered at 19 DOE, and chickens were challenged at 14 DPH. Chickens vaccinated with 10^3.5 EID₅₀/egg of rZJ1*L-IL4R had hatch rates comparable to the group that received diluent alone, whereas other groups had significantly lower hatch rates. All vaccinated chickens survived challenge without displaying clinical disease, had protective hemagglutination inhibition titers, and shed comparable levels of challenge virus. The recombinant rZJ1*L-IL4R vaccine yielded lower post-vaccination mortality rates compared with the other in ovo NDV live vaccine candidates as well as provided strong protection post-challenge.