Effective Vaccination Program for Squabs from Vaccinated and NonVaccinated Pigeons with Tissue Culture Adapted Pigeon Pox Live Attenuated Vaccine Regarding Maternal Immunity

In this study, the duration of immunity as well as maternally derived antibodies (MDA) induced by the innovated tissue culture pigeon pox vaccine (TC-PPV) were evaluated for the first time. It was found that the postvaccinal reaction was more prominent in pigeons vaccinated with egg-adapted PPV (EG-PPV) (100%) than in pigeons vaccinated with TC-PPV (88%). The duration of induced immunity was higher using EG-PPV (1 year with a peak of neutralizing antibodies index 3.25 while it was 2.75 using TC-PPV) after 1 month of vaccination. MDA in squabs of vaccinated dams with TC-PPV maintained the protective level of antibodies up to 3weeks post-hatching (WPH) with 100% protection against a challenge. In contrast, in squabs of vaccinates with EG-PPV, it remained up to 4 WPH with 90 % protection. Such antibody levels hinder the immune response to vaccination with TC-PPV resulting in vaccination failure with 40% protection for squabs of TC-PPV vaccinated dams at 3rd WPH and 60% protection for squabs of EG-PPV vaccinated dams at 4th WPH reflecting the successive vaccination at the 4th WPH and 5th WPH, respectively for hatched squabs with 80% protection in both groups while in squabs of unvaccinated dams; the vaccination with TC-PPV appears to be protective from 2nd WPH with 100% protection. In addition, this study recommends revaccination of pigeons with TC-PPV after 10 months and vaccination of their squabs not before 4 WPH to avoid vaccination failure by MDA.