Prevention of Inclusion Body Hepatitis (IBH) in the broiler Chicken Industry: Optimizing Two Prototype Fowl Adenoviral Vaccines

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Inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) is an acute viral disease in chickens characterized by sudden onset of high mortality with severe hepatic necrosis with microscopic intranuclear inclusion bodies. IBH is caused by several different serotypes of fowl adenoviruses (FAdV). Since 2000, IBH has emerged as the number one economically important disease for the broiler chicken industry in Canada. Although Saskatchewan has only 4% of the Canadian broiler chicken industry sales, it loses over $300,000/year due to mortality from IBH. Hence, the total Canadian broiler industry loss of productivity is much higher, estimated in millions of dollars. We were able to identify that outbreaks of IBH in Canada are primarily due to vertical transmission of FAdVs from their parents. We were also able to demonstrate that five major serotypes of FAdVs cause IBH across Canada and there is a significant protection of broilers against IBH by vaccinating broiler breeders with either inactivated or live FAdV vaccine. Although, we were able to produce two prototype vaccines against IBH with financial support from industry and NSERC, we need to optimize these inactivated and live FAdV vaccines to improve their efficacy before they can be manufactured and become commercially available to the broiler industry in Canada. This proposed research will optimize both live and inactivated FAdV vaccines, and improve our understanding of FAdV shedding and mutational changes of FAdV at the molecular level.