Immunogenicity and efficacy of a bivalent vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus

Infectious bronchitis (IB) is a highly contagious viral disease and is responsible for considerable economic losses in the poultry industry, worldwide. To mitigate the IB-associated losses, multiple vaccines are being applied in the sector with variable successes and thus necessitating the development of a potent vaccine to protect against the IB in the poultry. In the present study, we investigated a bivalent live attenuated vaccine consisting of IB virus (IBV) strain H120 (GI-1 lineage) and D274 (GI-12 lineage) to evaluate its protection against heterologous variant of IBV (GI-23 lineage) in chicken. Protection efficacy was evaluated based on the serology, clinical signs, survival rates, tracheal and kidney histopathology and the viral shedding. Results demonstrated that administering live H120 and D274 (named here Classivar (R)) vaccine in one day-old and 14 days-old provided 100 % protection. We observed a significant increase in the mean antibody titers, reduced virus shedding, and ameliorated histopathology lesions compared to routinely used vaccination regimes. These results revealed that usage of different IBV vaccines combination can successfully ameliorate the clinical outcome and pathology in vaccinated chicks especially after booster vaccination regime using Classivar (R). In conclusions, our data indicate that Classivar (R) vaccine is safe in chicks and may serve as an effective vaccine against the threat posed by commonly circulating IBV strains in the poultry industry.