Field trials to test the efficacy of polyvalent Marek's disease vaccines in layer and broiler breeder chickens.

As a follow-up to earlier trials to evaluate the efficacy of polyvalent Marek's disease (MD) vaccines in broilers, four trials were conducted with layer or broiler breeder flocks. Chickens caccinated with trivalent (Md11/75C plus SB-1 plus HVT) and bivalent (SB-1 plus HVT) vaccines were compared with those vaccinated with turkey herpesvirus (HVT) alone. Data from three of the four trials indicated polyvalent vaccines were more efficacious than HVT. However, critical interpretations were confounded by low MD lesion frequencies, unequal exposure in different houses on a farm, and difficulty in the differential diagnosis of mortality due to neoplasms. The data confirmed our earlier observation that trivalent and bivalent vaccines were equally effective. Broiler progeny of breeders vaccinated or contact-infected with Serotype 2 MD virus were well protected by either bivalent or HVT vaccines against challenge with very virulent MD virus strains in the laboratory. A high incidence of lymphoid leukosis was observed in two trials and may have been due to post-hatch exposure to an unidentified environmental source of avian leukosis virus.