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Field Evaluation of Flock Production Performance of In ovo Injection of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus Immune Complex Vaccine in Commercial Broiler Farms

Department of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan

Correspondence: C. C. Chou, E-mail: chouchin{at}ccms.ntu.edu.tw

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is a highly contagious immunosuppressive disease caused by a birnavirus destroying primarily the immature B lymphocytes in the bursa of Fabricius of young chickens. The conventional method of controlling IBD is to hyperimmunize hens, followed by vaccinating progeny after maternal antibody levels decrease. In recent years, in ovo technology has become an alternative choice of vaccination of broiler chicks against diseases. This field investigation compared the selected flock-raising performances between in ovo injection of infectious bursal disease virus immune complex (IBDV-ICX) vaccine chicks and conventional IBD vaccination (non in ovo injection) chicks. The results showed that in ovo injection of IBDV-ICX vaccine could benefit livability (94.62%) and feed conversion ratio (1.73) significantly (P < 0.01) in commercial broilers better than non in ovo injection chicks whose livability and feed conversion ratio were 92.85% and 1.79, respectively. In addition, although not statistically different, the production efficiency factor of in ovo injection chicks (275.65) was higher than non in ovo injection chicks (263.62). Use of in ovo IBDV-ICX injection in commercial broilers increased weekly mortality during the first 2 wk (P > 0.05) but benefited production efficiency factor (P < 0.01) during the period of midwinter to spring. Due to the potential for selection biases of study flocks, the data, which were provided voluntarily, increasing the study population is necessary for a better understanding of the applications.

Key Words: in ovo injection • infectious bursal disease vaccine • broiler production performance