Seroprevalence of Fowl Pox Antibody in Indigenous Chickens in Jos North and South Council Areas of Plateau State, Nigeria: Implication for Vector Vaccine

Abstract

Fowl pox is a viral disease of domestic and wild birds. The large size of the genome makes it a useful vector for recombinant DNA technology. Although the disease has been described in both commercial and indigenous chickens in Nigeria, data are limited on seroprevalence in free range chickens. Such data are, however, important in the design and implementation of fowl pox virus vector vaccine. We surveyed current antibody status to fowl pox virus in free range chickens by testing 229 sera collected from 10 villages in Jos North and Jos South LGA of Plateau State Nigeria. Sera were analyzed by AGID against standard fowl pox antigen. Fifty-two of the 229 (23%) tested sera were positive for fowl pox virus antibody, and the log titre in all positive specimen was >2. Thirty (21%) and twenty-two (27%) of the samples from Jos South and Jos North, respectively, tested positive. This was, however, not statistically significant (P = 0.30). Generally the study showed a significant level of antibody to fowl pox virus in the study area. This observation may hinder effective use of fowl pox vectored viral vaccine. Fowl pox control is recommended to reduce natural burden of the disease.

Pock forming ability of fowl pox virus isolated from layer chicken and its adaptation in chicken embryo fibroblast cell culture

“…Fowl pox is a contagious disease of domestic and wild birds [ 1 ] of all ages, sexes and breeds [ 2 ] which is caused by fowl pox virus (FPV), a DNA virus that comes under the genus Avipoxvirus of family Poxviridae and subfamily Chordopoxvirinae [ 3 ]. FPV is brick shaped [ 4 ], has large size genome approximately 288-300 k base pairs (Kbp) [ 5 ].…”

“…Clinically the affected birds show three forms of the disease namely; the cutaneous, diphtheritic and systemic form [ 9 , 10 ]. In the cutaneous form, bird shows nodular lesion on unfeathered parts of the body [ 1 ]. The characteristics feature of a diphtheritic form is fibro-necrotic lesions in the mucous lining of the oropharyngeal route [ 2 ] and the internal tissues are found to be most affected in the third form [ 9 ].…”

The emergence of subclades A1 and A3 avipoxviruses in India

“…This is probably due to the absence of maternal antibodies in the chicks or squabs (Lawson et al, ; Sawale, Roshini, Bulbule, Chawak, & Kinge, ) or due to overall underdeveloped immune systems. As most of the poultry farmers in this region did not adopt vaccination, this might have contributed towards higher susceptibility and severity of the disease (Adebajo, Ademola, & Oluwaseun, ). The viral presence was confirmed by PCR amplification of two loci containing the P4b core protein and the DNA polymerase gene.…”

In silico Prediction of Peptide based Vaccine against Fowlpox Virus (FPV)

“…It's used to differentiate FPV from other APVs because it's highly conserved. FPV140 is highly antigenic and immunodominent [1][2][3][4]6,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]17,18].…”