Aims
Genotype VII Newcastle disease (ND) is one of the most epidemic and serious infectious diseases in the poultry industry. A novel vaccine targeting VII Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is still proving elusive.
Methods and Results
In this study, we constructed regulated delayed lysis Salmonella strains expressing either a fusion protein (F) alone under an eukaryotic CMV promoter or together with chicken IL‐18 (chIL‐18) as a molecular adjuvant under prokaryotic Ptrc promoter, named pYL1 and pYL23 respectively. Oral immunization with recombinant strains induced NDV‐specific serum IgG antibodies in both pYL1‐ and pYL23‐immunized chickens. The presence of chIL‐18 significantly increased lymphocyte proliferation in immunized chickens, as well as the percentages of CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ T cells in serum, even if a statistically significant difference did not exist. After a virulent challenge, pYL23 immunization provided about 80% protection at day 10 postinfection, compared with 60% of protection offered by pYL1 immunization and 100% protection in the inactivated vaccine group, indicating the enhanced immune response provided by chIL‐18, which was also confirmed by histochemical analysis.
Conclusions
Recombinant lysis Salmonella‐vectored DNA vaccine could provide us a novel potential option for controlling NDV infection.
Significance and Impact of the Study
This study took use of a regulated delayed lysis Salmonella vector for the design of an orally administrated vaccine against NDV.