Immune Response of Broiler Chicks to Newcastle Disease Vaccine (LaSota), by Different Routes

Mary Ekundayo Sanda

Mary Ekundayo Sanda Department of Veterinary Medicine, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.

Keywords: Newcastle disease, immunity, LaSota, broilers, vaccination, routes

Abstract

Aims: This work was undertaken to study the immune response of broiler chicks to LaSota vaccine by using different routes of administration.

Study Design: The design used was a completely randomized design.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at the Poultry Unit of the Kogi State University Teaching and Research Farm Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria. It lasted for 5 weeks.

Methodology: One-hundred-day old broiler chicks were grouped into 4 of 25 chicks each (A, B, C and D). In the 3^rd week of life, the groups were vaccinated with LaSota by intraocular (i/o), intramuscular (i/m) and oral (per os) routes respectively while Group D served as the unvaccinated control group. Five chicks from each group were randomly selected and bled at 2, 3, 4 and 5 weeks post LaSota vaccination. Their sera were used for Haemagglutination Inhibition (HI) test.

Results: All the routes used produced high levels of Haemagglutination Inhibition (HI) antibody titres two weeks post vaccination. Immunity fell below protective level after 5 weeks post vaccination.

Conclusion: All the routes in this study were immunogenic and vaccination failure may not necessarily be due to the route of administration of vaccine.