A reassortment vaccine candidate of the novel variant infectious bursal disease virus

Infectious bursal disease (IBD), caused by infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), is the most important immunosuppressive disease threatening the poultry industry worldwide. Recently, the novel variant IBDV has been emerging in large-scale in Asia including China and is becoming a new threat to the healthy development of the poultry industry, but no ideal vaccine is available. Therefore, it is necessary and urgent to develop a new vaccine against the novel variant IBDV. In this study, based on the skeleton of an attenuated vaccine strain Gt, a reassortment virus strain rGtVarVP2 was constructed for the first time, which could express the main protective antigen VP2 of the novel variant IBDV and replicate well in cell culture. Subsequently, the safety and effectiveness of rGtVarVP2 were further evaluated using animal experiments. The rGtVarVP2 is nonpathogenic to specific-pathogen-free (SPF) chicken. The immunization of rGtVarVP2 could induce the specific neutralizing antibodies against the novel variant IBDV. The challenge protection tests further confirmed the effectiveness of the IBDV reassortment virus rGtVarVP2. No atrophy and obvious lesions were observed in the immunization group while the bursae of non-immunization control group were severely destroyed after challenge, which showed that rGtVarVP2 could provide complete protection against the novel variant IBDV. These data indicate that the vaccine candidate (rGtVarVP2 strain) is safe and effective, which is of great significance for comprehensive control of IBD and healthy breeding.