Embryo vaccination of turkeys against Newcastle disease infection with recombinant fowlpox virus constructs containing interferons as adjuvants

Abstract Recombinant fowlpox viruses (rFPV) expressing the fusion and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase glycoproteins of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) as well as chicken type I interferon (IFN) or type II IFN were used to vaccinate specific pathogen-free (SPF) turkeys in ovo. No significant changes in the hatchability, survival rate, performance and weight gain were observed after vaccination with the rFPV vaccines in comparison to diluent-inoculated embryos. The rFPV-NDV-IFN-II construct induced the onset of anti-NDV antibody production in SPF birds at one week post hatch, one week earlier than other vaccine constructs. Three to five weeks post hatch, the turkeys were challenged with the neurotropic velogenic NDV strain Texas GB (NDV-GB-Tx). The rFPV-NDV-IFN-II construct was the most protective vaccine against NDV. rFPV vaccines significantly ( p