Infectious Bursal Disease Virus

Abstract Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is an Avibirnavirus that causes infectious bursal disease (IBD), an immunosuppressive disease in chickens. Immune suppression results from destruction of immature B-lymphocytes in the bursa of Fabricius by the virus. IBD is an economically important disease in the poultry industry due not only to performance losses but also to immune suppression related secondary infections. Two serotypes of the virus exist in chickens, turkeys and other avian species but disease results only from serotype 1 infections in chickens. Pathotypes of the virus range from naturally attenuated to very virulent. Control of IBD is attempted using vaccines but the wide variety of IBDV antigenic subtypes makes this challenging.