The intensive poultry industries rely heavily upon the use of
vaccines for disease control. Viral vector based
vaccines offer new avenues for the development of
vaccines for effective disease control in poultry. Techniques developed for the construction of recombinant vaccinia viruses have been readily adapted to the construction of recombinant viruses based on fowlpox virus (rFPV). The ability to insert several genes into the large genome of
fowlpox may enable the development of
multivalent vaccines and
vaccines incorporating immune response modifiers such as
lymphokines.
Newcastle disease,
avian influenza, infectious bursal disease and
Marek's disease antigens expressed by rFPV have been shown to be effective
vaccines in poultry. None appear, however, to provide a substantial improvement in
vaccine efficacy. Recombinant FPV will be a valuable adjunct to conventional
vaccines currently in widespread use. Whether rFPV or other vector based
vaccines can circumvent the problems of vaccination in the presence of high maternally derived
antibodies is yet to be resolved. The observation that avipoxvirus recombinants may be suitable for the vaccination of non-avian species provides an added dimension to
vaccines based on FPV or other avipoxviruses. Recombinant FPV will find a useful role in
poultry disease control when used in conjunction with conventional
vaccines.