On epizootiology and control of lymphoid leukosis in chickens

Sera and organ extracts from ten different commercial stocks of layer chickens were examined for the presence of lymphoid leukosis (LL) viruses. Virus was recovered from 40.8% of the cockerels between three and six weeks of age. Their female hatch mates were examined at the age of 20 months. A mean of 11.3% of these laying hens was positive in the NP activation test. Lymphoid leukosis was successfully controlled in three inbred strains of White Leghorn chickens and in a commercial White Plymouth Rock line. All flocks were kept in a filtered air positive pressure (FAPP) house during the first two months of life and thereafter transferred to a conventional environment. The control method is based on three elements:

• —from an infected flock, hens are selected in whose eggs no avian lymphoid leukosis viruses can be detected by examination of pooled extracts of groups of embryos;

• —only eggs from hens that are shown not to shed congenitally virus in their eggs are used for the production of progeny. The offspring are reared in isolation until two months of age at which time the age-related resistance against tumour formation appears to be sufficiently developed;

• —the chickens are subsequently intramuscularly inoculated with lymphoid leukosis viruses of subgroups A and B and transferred to a conventional chicken house. The inoculated birds become persistently viremic and resist horizontal virus exposure and intramuscular challenge infections.

Horizontal virus transmission was observed to take place when virus-free non-vaccinated chickens were reared in isolation for two months and then exposed under field conditions.Efficiency of virus recovery was considerably improved when washed buffy coat cells were cocultivated with chick embryo fibroblasts or explant cultures were prepared from various tissues before testing with the NP activation test.