Efficacy of Infectious Bursal Disease Vaccine in Broiler Chickens Receiving Different Vaccination Programs

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of 3 infectious bursal disease vaccination programs in commercial broiler chickens. One hundred and forty, 1-day-old female broiler chickens were divided into 4 groups of 35 chickens each. Groups 1-3 were vaccinated with infectious bursal disease (IBD) vaccine via oral administration at 1, 1 and 16, and 16-day-old, respectively. Group 4 served as a positive control group. Body weight, sera collection, bursa: body weight (B:BW) ratios and histopathological lesion scores (HLS) were evaluated at 16, 30 and 40-day-old. All the chickens in groups 1 to 4 were challenged with IBD virus at 30-day-old. The survival rate of groups 1-4 were 95.83, 100, 100 and 95.83 percent, respectively. Body weight, B:BW ratios and HLS of each group at 16, 30 and 40-day-old were not significantly different (p>0.05). At 7 and 16-day-old, the average antibody levels of the 1-day-old vaccinated group were significantly lower than the non-vaccinated at 1-day-old group (p<0.05). At 30 and 40-day-old, there was no significant difference in antibodies against IBD virus in all the groups (p>0.05). In conclusion, the vaccination at 1-day-old, 1 and 16-day-old and 16-day-old did not cause adverse effects to body weight, B:BW ratios and HLS.