EVALUATION OF CELL MEDIATED IMMUNE

RESPONSE TO CHICKEN INFECTIOUS ANEMIA

VIRUS (CIAV) IN EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED
CHICKS

Mini Abstract of
Thesis
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree
of
MASTER OF VETERINARY SCIENCE
in
VETERINARY IMMUNOLOGY

By
Dr. Manjunath Basaraddi
Roll No. 4813

Under Supervision of
Dr. Kuldeep Dhama
Senior Scientist

To
DEEMED UNIVERSITY
INDIAN VETERINARY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Izatnagar – 243 122 (U.P.)
2011
 Mini Abstract

Chicken Infectious Anemia (CIA), an emerging economically important

immunosuppressive disease of primarily young chickens, caused by Chicken Infectious Anemia
Virus (CIAV), which is the smallest, very hardy and highly contagious avian virus belonging to
Gyrovirus genus of Circoviridae family. CIAV results in severe immunosuppression but a
little is known about CMI and cytokine suppression in relevance to CIAV infection. The
present study was undertaken focusing on cell mediated immune response to CIAV by
comparative cytokine gene expression and lymphocytic proliferation activity in experimentally
infected chicks with CIAV. In the present study, seventy five (75) chicks were divided into
five groups (group A-E) consisting of equal number of chicks in each group. The first four
groups inoculated intramuscularly (I/M) with 0.5 ml of 104.5 TCID50 /0.1 ml of MSB1 cell culture
passaged CIAV isolate (at 6th passage level) at zero, 14th , 21st and 28th days of age (Group A, B,
C and D respectively) and fifth group (E) was kept as uninfected control. The transcripts levels
of cytokines (IL-1ß, IL-10, IL-12ß and GM-CSF) were measured at 4th and 7th DPI by
qRT-PCR and lymphocytic proliferation activity was measured at 1st , 2 nd and 3rd week PI by
LTT assay from three chicks selected randomly from each group. LTT showed that the CMI
response of CIAV infected chicks (group A-D) was significantly (p<0.05) low as compared
to control group (E). Nucleosomal fragmentation was higher in early stages of infection (7th
and 10th DPI) and least in later stage (14th DPI) suggesting apoptosis was higher in early
stages (7th and 10th DPI) which correlates with downregulated cytokines (IL-1ß, IL-10, IL-
12ß and GM-CSF) in all CIAV infected chicks (group A-D) at both intervals (4th and 7th
DPI). All infected groups showed downregulated cytokine expression which correlates with
apoptotic pattern. Increased apoptosis, decreased PCV and decreased cytokine expression
explains involvement of thymic precursor cells and hematopoietic cells. LTT assay has further
confirmed that apoptotic involvement of lymphocytes by the virus in infected chicks. CIAV
target organs are thymus, bone marrow, liver, spleen and bursa, which was confirmed by VP2
specific PCR and histopathology. The study shows that CIAV targets immune cells which lead
to suppression of CMI response. Importance of the present study is that CIAV induced
immunosuppression may endanger vaccine programmes in particular and growth performance
of chicks in general.