Vaccine in Poultry

Vaccines are used to prevent or reduce problems that can occur when a poultry flock is exposed to field disease organisms. Vaccinations should be thought of as insurance. Like insurance, there is a price to be paid for protection against a potential threat. Costs include price of the vaccine, time spent designing the vaccination schedule and administering the vaccines, and losses due to vaccine reactions from the live-type vaccines and localized tissue damage from killed-type vaccine injections. As with insurance, if the risk of a particular disease is low in the area, it makes little sense to vaccinate against that disease, as the costs may outweigh the benefits. Once a decision is made to vaccinate, many factors have to be considered to ensure that vaccinations are successful.

A vaccination failure occurs when, following vaccine administration, the chickens do not develop adequate antibody titer levels and/or are susceptible to a field disease outbreak. When a vaccination fails, the natural inclination is to blame the vaccine. Although this is certainly an important consideration, there are other factors that must be evaluated to determine the cause of the failure. Some of these are included.

A high level of maternal antibodies in the young chicken may interfere with the multiplication of live vaccines, reducing the amount of immunity produced. For example, if a chick comes from a breeder hen with high levels of antibody against Gumboro (Infectious Bursal Disease), the chick will typically have high levels of antibodies (maternal) for several weeks. If vaccination is attempted in the presence of these antibodies, some of the vaccine virus will be inactivated. A decreased response to the vaccine results.

Stress may reduce the chicken's ability to mount an immune response. Stress could include environmental extremes (temperature, relative humidity), inadequate nutrition, parasitism, and other diseases. Chickens should not be vaccinated during periods of stress. That is, delay vaccination until the birds are healthy.

Live vaccines may be inactivated due to improper handling or administration. Before administering live vaccines, check and record lot numbers and expiration dates on the vials. Store and handle vaccines as recommended by the manufacturer. Once a vaccine is reconstituted, "time clock is ticking" I.Bronchitisvaccine loses 50% of its potency in warm conditions in 1hour.

The vaccine may not contain the proper strains or serotypes of organism required to stimulate protective immunity. Although the vaccine is administered properly and uniform and adequate antibody titers are present, the chickens still break with the disease, particularly with infectious bronchitis and more recently with infectious bursal disease.

Most infectious bronchitis vaccination programs include the Massachusetts and Connecticut serotypes of infectious bronchitis virus in the vaccine. If the chickens in the field are challenged with the Florida, Arkansas, or other variant serotypes, the disease may occur. Likewise, if protective levels of antibodies against infectious bronchitis virus are present, this does not suggest the chickens are necessarily protected against Newcastle or other diseases. Antibody titer levels must be determined for each disease.

Poor distribution of live vaccine administered by the water or spray route may result in chickens being "missed" in parts of the house. Relying on transmission of the vaccine from bird to bird is risky, and can result in excessive rolling-type reactions of long duration and delayed immunity in the flock. "Misses" with killed vaccines will result in chickens with no protection, as killed vaccines will not spread from bird to bird.

Chickens may already be incubating the disease at the time of vaccine administration. Despite proper administration, the birds become diseased because time is needed for antibody production to begin and reach protective levels. Remember, after first exposure to a live virus-type vaccine, immunoglobulins G, M, and A are first detected approximately 4 to 5 days following exposure. Additional days are required for titers to reach protective levels.

Chickens may be immunosuppressed due to infection with infectious bursal disease virus or Mareks' disease virus, or from consumption of feed with high levels of mycotoxins. The term immunosuppression refers to circumstances where the non-cellular (antibody) and cellular components of the immune system are not functioning properly. This may result in the development of only limited protection from the vaccination and an excessive vaccine reaction with morbidity and mortality.

Vaccine may be of poor quality (low vaccine titer, contaminated, etc.). The vaccine manufacturing industry is highly regulated and has extensive internal quality control. Vaccine failures due to problems with vaccine are rare.

From time to time, vaccination will fail. Although the quality of vaccine is typically blamed, there are many other factors that need to he considered. Vaccines need to be thought of as life insurance. Most people have life insurance, but few hope to have to use it anytime soon. Likewise, in a poultry operation, the objective should be disease prevention (through effective biosecurity procedures). However, if there is a breakdown in the biosecurity program and a disease outbreak occurs, the vaccination program (insurance) needs to be adequate and effective to limit resulting losses. A thorough understanding of the causes of vaccine failure will help prevent such losses in the future.

References:

1. This document is Fact Sheet VM 82, one of a series of the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Printed February 1994.
2. Gary D. Butcher, DVM, Poultry Veterinarian, Associate Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine; and Richard D. Miles, Professor, Poultry Nutritionist, Dairy and Poultry Science Department; Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611.