Comparative efficacy of cell culture inactivated vaccines against hydropericardium syndrome in broilers

Abstract

A field isolate of hydropericardium syndrome virus, recovered from an outbreak in week-old broiler birds, was adapted to chicken kidney cell culture by successive passaging up to the 10th passage. Two formalinized inactivated vaccines were prepared from the pooled virus harvest of 1Oth passage having a titre 6.5 log10 TCID50/ml3 of which 1 was advuanted with saponin. Both vaccines were found safe and confirmed 100% protection in vaccinated broiler chickens to challenge infection. Indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) showed significant rise in antibody titres in the vaccinated chickens by day 7 post vaccination. However, the vaccine adjuvanted with saponin was more efficacious, as it induced higher antibody titres in vaccinated chickens on different days post vaccination and challenge. The indirect ELISA was also more sensitive than agar gel precipitation test (AGPT) in detecting humoral immune response in vaccinated chicks.