Growth and titration of haemorrhagic enteritis virus of turkeys in chick embryos

Abstract

Haemorrhagic enteritis virus (HEV) is an immunosuppressive adenovirus that causes haemorrhagic enteritis in young turkey poults with increased incidence of secondary bacterial infections, such as colibacillosis (Pierson and Fitzgerald, 2013). Worldwide live vaccines propagated in cell culture or turkeys (crude spleen homogenates) are used to prevent the disease. In Australia, there is currently no licensed HEV vaccine due to inability to import the only cell line known to support HEV propagation (RP19) and to the unavailability of specific pathogen free (SPF) turkeys. The use of a vaccine to confer appropriate flock immunity could decrease the incidence of colibacillosis associated with HEV infection in Australia (Gerber et al., 2017). The main goal of this study was to investigate the feasibility of propagating and titrating HEV in SPF chicken embryos.