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Deletion of the Viral Thymidine Kinase in a Meq-Deleted Recombinant Marek’s Disease Virus Reduces Lymphoid Atrophy but Is Less Protective
- Source :
- Microorganisms, Vol 10, Iss 1, p 7 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Marek’s disease (MD) is a ubiquitous disease of domesticated chickens and its etiologic agent is the Gallid alphaherpesvirus 2 (GaHV-2), also known as Marek’s disease virus (MDV). MD is currently controlled by vaccination using live attenuated strains of MDV (e.g., CVI988/Rispens), non-pathogenic serotypes of MDV (GaHV-3), or non-pathogenic strains of the related Melagrid alphaherpesvirus 1 (MeHV-1). One attractive strategy for the production of new vaccine strains is a recombinant MDV attenuated by the deletion of the major viral oncogene meq. However, meq-deleted variants of MDV cause atrophy of the bursa and thymus in maternal antibody-negative chickens, and the resulting immunosuppression makes them unsuitable. Herein we detail our attempt to mitigate the lymphoid atrophy caused by meq-deleted MDV by further attenuation of the virus through ablation of the viral thymidine kinase (tk) gene. We demonstrate that ablation of the viral tk from the meq-deleted virus rMd5B40/Δmeq resulted in a virus attenuated for replication in vitro and which spared chickens from atrophy of the lymphoid organs in vivo. When the rMd5B40/Δmeq/Δtk/GFP was used as a vaccine it was protective against challenge with the vv+MDV strain 686, but the protection was less than that provided by the CVI988/Rispens vaccine.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20762607
- Volume :
- 10
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- Microorganisms
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.6d5d48bcb5f4644aa91a20c7c269bed
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10010007