Comparative evaluation of vaccine efficacy of recombinant Marek's disease virus vaccine lacking Meq oncogene in commercial chickens

Marek's disease virus (MDV) oncogene meq has been identified as the gene involved in tumorigenesis in chickens. We have recently developed a Meq-null virus, rMd5ΔMeq, in which the oncogene meq was deleted. Vaccine efficacy experiments conducted in Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory (ADOL) 15I₅ × 7₁ chickens vaccinated with rMd5ΔMeq virus or an ADOL preparation of CVI988/Rispens indicated that rMd5ΔMeq provided superior protection than CVI988/Rispens when challenged with the very virulent plus MDV 648A strain. In the present study we set to investigate the vaccine efficacy of rMd5ΔMeq in the field compared to several commercial preparations of CVI988/Rispens. Three large-scale field experiments, in which seeder chickens were inoculated with a very virulent plus strain of 686, vv+ MDV, were conducted in a model developed by Hy-Line International. In addition, comparisons were made with bivalent vaccine (HVT + SB-1), HVT alone and several serotype 3 HVT-vectored vaccines individually or in combination with CVI988/Rispens. Experimental results showed that addition of HVT to either of the two commercial CVI988/Rispens preparations tested (A or B) did not enhance protection conferred by CVI988/Rispens alone and that rMd5ΔMeq was a better or equal vaccine compared to any of the CVI988/Rispens vaccines tested under the conditions of the field trials presented herein. Our results also emphasized the complexity of factors affecting vaccine efficacy and the importance of challenge dose in protection.