The Poultry Vaccine Science Behind “Turkey Herpes”
I’ll admit, “turkey herpes” was not on my agriculture news bingo card today. But it turns out, herpesvirus of turkey is actually being put to work in some pretty important poultry vaccines.
Scientists use the virus as a vector, essentially a carrier, and combine it with genetic material from other poultry viruses. The result is what’s called a recombinant HVT vaccine, and that technology is used to protect chickens against diseases including Newcastle disease, infectious bursal disease and infectious laryngotracheitis.
Now researchers are looking at how to make those vaccines better.
HVT has to be grown inside living cells, and differences in those cells can affect how much infectious virus winds up in each dose. So researchers at North Carolina State University recently tested a new way of growing it, increasing vaccine titers fivefold and infectivity 300 percent, while cutting dose variability in half.
The vaccines maintained their safety and protection, and researchers say the approach could eventually mean more efficient vaccine production, lower costs and more consistent dosing at the hatchery.
