Research Article
Hagazi Fantay, Endale Balch
Abstract
The study was conducted from December 2013 to April 2014 to predict the proper age for vaccination of chickens against infectious bursal disease (IBD) and calculate the maternal antibody transfer rate. A total of 99 chickens: 80-day-old chickens and 19 parent chickens’ were randomly selected from Mekelle Farms. Blood samples were collected from heart and wing vein of individual chicken and serum was harvested. Indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (IELISA) was employed to measure the Maternally Derived Antibodies (MDAs) from chickens of day 2, 18, 21 and antibody titers from parents. Samples from 2 day old chicken were having MDA titer in the range of 805.095-2821.239 with a mean titer of 1677.5. Antibody titers from 19 parents were also measured and the antibody titer showed that it falls within the range of 1825.94-4856.87 with a mean titer of 2964.602 and maternal antibody titer transfer rate from parents to 2 day old chickens was 56.57%. Other MDA titers were measured from 38 chickens of 21 days age of which 19 were vaccinated at 18th day of age and 19 them were non-vaccinated. Titers from vaccinated and non-vaccinated chickens were also compared using paired independent T- test and there was a significant difference with p-value of p=0.00. The present study showed that the proper time for administration of live intermediate IBD vaccine is 18 days instead of 21 days with the management conditions in place at the farm. Therefore, IBD vaccine should not be given to chickens whose parents had taken IBD vaccine without determining MDA titer and age for vaccination.