USPOULTRY and the USPOULTRY Foundation announce the completion of a funded research project at the University of Georgia, Athens, Ga., in which researchers provide insight on vacation against infectious bronchitis. The project is part of the Association’s comprehensive research program encompassing all phases of poultry and egg production and processing. A brief summary of the completed project is shown below. A complete report, along with information on other Association research, may be obtained by going to USPOULTRY’s website, www.uspoultry.org. The project summary is as follows:

Project #680: Understanding Arkansas IBV Vaccination Failures
(Dr. Mark Jackwood and Dr. Brian Jordan, University of Georgia, Department of Population Health, Athens, Ga.)

Dr. Mark Jackwood and Dr. Brian Jordan at the University of Georgia recently completed a research project that looked at the possible reasons for frequent vaccine failures when broilers are vaccinated with Arkansas infectious bronchitis vaccine. They found the vaccine contains a mixture of subpopulations of viruses, and one of the minor subpopulations is actually responsible for immunizing the birds. Using a hatchery spray cabinet, they showed the limiting factor for immunizing chicks with the vaccine was delivering an adequate dosage of the critical minor virus subpopulation to the chicks. This research may lead to future improvements in the Arkansas infectious bronchitis vaccine.

You can find a detailed summary here.