Experimental vaccination of broiler chickens against Newcastle disease in Burkina Faso using the thermotolerant LaSota/A300 and V4/276 coated-millet vaccines

Abstract

Vaccination against Newcastle disease with the thermotolerantLaSota/A300 and V4/276 coated-millet vaccines was tried in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, by feeding 298 European broiler chickens exhibiting maternal antibodies. Opportunistic infections, such as colibacteriosis, decimated 70-81 % of the three vaccinated groups and 24 % of control, before being eradicated by antibiotic therapy. The surviving chickens were challenged two months after vaccination with the Hertz 33/56 virus strain. This resulted in 100 % deaths in the control group, 78 % in birds vaccinated with the V4/276, 7 % in birds fed with LaSota/A300, and in no death in the group given both vaccines at one week interval. These last two groups also exhibited high titres of IHA antibodies before the challenge. The lyophilized LaSota/A300 and V4/276 vaccines kept high viral titres after 8-34 days’ ambient temperature exposure during the cool season in Ouagadougou.