Protection and efficacy of cell culture propagated Montanide adjuvant based inactivated vaccine against hydropericardium syndrome in poultry.

The present study was designed to propagate field isolate of Fowl adenovirus-4 in chicken embryo liver (CEL) cell culture for development of efficient cell culture based inactivated vaccine. A pathogenic field isolate of fowl adenovirus-4 was propagated in chicken embryo liver cell culture. The liver homogenate virus (103.0TCID50/ml) and cell culture propagated FAV-4 (103.0TCID50/ml) was used for preparing water based and oil based inactivated vaccines. The post-vaccination antibody response to all vaccines was tested by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay (till 3 week post vaccination) and the chickens were subjected to challenge protection studies. The groups injected with oil base (Montanide) and water based conventional liver homogenate vaccines showed an average S/P (Sample/positive) value of 0.341 and 0.323 respectively, the groups given P-1 cell culture passaged oil (Montanide) based and water based vaccines showed an average S/P ratio 0.989 and 0.800 respectively. Cell culture based montanide adjuvanted vaccine showed highest antibody response (S/P) among all groups. Cell culture passaged vaccinated groups survived and provided 100% protection against challenge. Liver homogenate based vaccines provided 80% protection. As a whole the cell culture passaged vaccines qualified the known standards of safety, sterility and potency.