Challenges and recent advancements in infectious laryngotracheitis virus vaccines

Over the past 80 years, biosecurity measures and vaccines have been used to prevent the occurrence of outbreaks of infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT). Despite these control strategies, ILT continues to have an impact on intensive poultry industries. Attenuated vaccines, particularly those derived by passage in chicken embryos, have been associated with a number of side effects, including residual virulence, transmission to naïve birds, establishment of latent infections with subsequent reactivation and shedding of virus, and reversion to virulence after in vivo passage. Most recently, recombination between attenuated ILT vaccines in the field has been shown to be responsible for the emergence of new virulent viruses that have caused widespread disease. To address some of these issues, new-generation virally vectored recombinant vaccines have been developed and recently released in some countries. In addition, recombinant deletion mutants of ILT virus have been proposed as vaccine candidates. In this review, recent advances in the understanding of the epidemiology of traditionally attenuated ILT vaccines as well as in the development and use of new generation vaccines are examined. Next-generation vaccines, along with more appropriate immunological screening strategies, are identified as particularly promising options to enhance ILT control in the future.