Gumboro Disease Virus (IBD) is very difficult to inactivate due to its structure. It is a non-enveloped virus, meaning that it only has genetic material surrounded by a protein coat. Any disinfectant that will inactivate IBD must be able to break down its protein coat, which is very difficult, and only a few products are able to effectively inactivate IBD properly.
Virukill is one of the few products on the market that can do this. Various laboratory tests, including one conducted by a GLP laboratory in the United States, have confirmed that Virukill inactivates IBD.
One of the main problems with IBD is that in young animals, the main target organ is the bursa of Fabricius. This organ is active in the immune response in birds, and if it is damaged, the bird’s immune system is compromised. In other words, their immune system is not fully functional. This affects the effectiveness of vaccination not only against IBD, but also against other pathogens.
Timing of flock vaccination:
The main effort to control the problems caused by IBD (apart from the obvious methods of inactivating the virus before stocking the houses) is to build up maternal antibodies in the flock and then use various calculation and prediction methods to calculate the time of vaccination.
If high levels of maternal antibodies are present at the time of vaccination with a live vaccine, they will attack the live vaccine virus and the vaccine will not be effective. However, if high levels of virus remain, they will also attack the bird and maternal antibodies will be depleted much more quickly than expected.
This means that the protective maternal antibodies are used up much more quickly and by the time the bird is vaccinated, there will be no antibodies left to protect the bird. This may not cause clinical disease but it can lead to suboptimal production parameters, poor vaccination efficacy and increased disease incidence.
Virukill efficacy testing:
Virukill efficacy against IBD has been tested in many laboratories including a GLP accredited laboratory in the USA. In a test conducted at the University of the Free State, two chicken coops were infected with a live IBD vaccine strain. One coop was disinfected using glutaraldehyde based products. The other coop was disinfected using Virukill. SPF chickens were introduced into this environment. These birds do not have any antibodies against IBD. Sera from these birds were collected over time to be tested for antibody levels. The only way antibodies could have developed was if the vaccine virus added to the soil had not been inactivated.
Test result:
In the cage disinfected with glutaraldehyde-based products, the birds secreted antibodies, but in the cage with Virukill, no antibodies were secreted. This result clearly shows that the Virukill disinfection program is effective in the pre-stocking phase.
