Infectious Bursal Disease: Control and monitoring strategies

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is a major cause of economic losses in the poultry and can be involved in mortality, immunosuppression and poor technical performance without clear clinical signs. However, these signs are not specific to IBDV. Therefore, diagnostic tools are needed to identify IBDV infections in relation to a clinical or subclinical problem in the field. This may also include typing of the strain in order to enable the choice of a vaccination programme with the best chance of achieving sufficient protection against an IBDV infection in the next flock. Antibody detection is also an important tool in the battle against IBDV. It is used to detect (subclinical) field infections, to check the response to a vaccination and to estimate the optimal age for vaccination(s) by measuring the level of maternally derived antibodies (MDA) in young chicks.

In general, IBDV infections can be diagnosed by detection of IBDV virus (infectious particles, antigen or its genome) itself or the IBDV antibody response. This presentation discusses the currently most used techniques for detecting IBDV infections, including discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of the available tests.