Immune Function in Pheasants Experimentally Infected with Marble Spleen Disease Virus

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of marble spleen disease virus (MSDV) infection on the immune response of pheasants. In the first, 15 ring-necked pheasants were inoculated orally with cell-culture-propagated MSDV and 15 received saline (controls). On days 7, 21, and 35 postinoculation (PI), all birds received sheep erythrocytes intravenously. Hemagglutination titers to sheep erythrocytes were determined for serum samples collected weekly for 6 weeks. The virus-inoculated group had significantly (P less than 0.05) lower hemagglutination titers than the control group. In the second experiment, 30 pheasants were allotted into two groups as above. Whole blood was collected from each bird weekly for 5 weeks. The blood was cultured in microtiter plates with or without optimum concentrations of concanavalin A. Five of 10 MSDV-inoculated pheasants had significantly depressed T lymphocyte transformation on either day 7 or day 14 PI. Overall, the depression of T lymphocyte transformation was transient and mild.

Investigation into diseases in free-ranging ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in northwestern Germany during population decline with special reference to infectious pathogens

“…Siadenovirus, especially MSDV, is reported to cause also predominantly respiratory clinical signs and often leads to peracute death (Fitzgerald and Reed 1989). Furthermore, immunosuppression may occur in infected pheasants (Fitzgerald et al 1992). Besides, this disease affects mainly pheasants from 3 to 8 months of age with mortality rates between 5 and 20% (Fitzgerald and Reed 1989).…”

“…In captive pheasants, an infection with avian encephalomyelitis virus has been described (Welchman et al 2009), but there is no evidence for the occurrence of this pathogen in free-living populations yet. Furthermore, marble spleen disease caused by siadenovirus has already been described as a common disease in pheasants raised on farms but not yet in free-ranging individuals (Fitzgerald et al 1992;Fitzgerald and Reed 1989;Pennycott 2000). The disease occurs naturally in pheasants 3-8 months of age (Swayne 2013).…”

Seasonal changes in vertebrate immune activity: mediation by physiological trade-offs

“…Table 1 summarizes the salient details of some of the most popular tests including the conventional interpretations of strong responses (the putative important parameter) for each test. Fitzgerald et al (1992) a Unlike KLH and DNFB, PHA is a mitogen that activates a variety of T-cell types, which may lead to different degrees of swelling compared with other antigens (see Martin et al 2006a,c) 3. SEASONAL VARIATION IN IMMUNE ACTIVITY (a) Intra-annual Environmental conditions are in temporal flux over much of the planet.…”