“…The importance of these findings has direct implications on the strategies involved in vaccine preparation and selection (Fussell, 1998). Changes in the pathogenicit y, antigenicity, or immunogenicity of IBDV derived from different host systems have been partially explained by alterations of the viral genome and epitopes (Ismail et al, 1988;Bayliss et al, 1990;Kibenge et al, 1991;Lana et al, 1992;Jackwood & Jackwood, 1994Vakharia et al, 1994;Jackwood & Sommer, 1997Ture et al, 1998;Eterradossi, et al, 1998Eterradossi, et al, , 1999Mundt, 1999;Boot et al, 2000;Kwon et al, 2000;Yamaguchi et al, 2000;Yu et al, 2000;Abdel-Alim & Saif 2001a,b;Brandt et al, 2001;Cavanagh, 2001;Hoque et al, 2001;Jackwood et al, 2001a,b;Kataria et al, 2001;Nagarajan et al, 2001;Toroghi et al, 2001;Van Loon et al, 2002). However, further work is required to gain a better understanding in correlating genomic and protein modifications with changes in the biological properties of IBDV.…”