A recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) virus expressing mature viral protein 2 (VP2) of the infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) was constructed to develop MVA-based vaccines for poultry. We demonstrated that this recombinant virus was able to induce a specific immune response by observing the production of anti-IBDV-seroneutralizing antibodies in specific pathogen-free chickens. Besides, as the epitopes of VP2 responsible to induce IBDV-neutralizing antibodies are discontinuous, our results suggest that VP2 protein expressed from MVA-VP2 maintained the correct conformational structure. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the usefulness of MVA-based vectors for developing recombinant vaccines for poultry.
Animals ; Antibodies, Viral ; Birnaviridae Infections/prevention & control/*veterinary ; Cells, Cultured ; Chick Embryo ; Chickens ; Fibroblasts/metabolism ; Infectious bursal disease virus/*immunology ; Poultry Diseases/*prevention & control/virology ; Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms ; Vaccinia virus/*genetics/immunology/metabolism ; Viral Structural Proteins/genetics/*immunology/metabolism ; Viral Vaccines/*immunology